This was the last stand of a group that used to post EUR20 million to EUR30 million revenue when its portfolio also included Sephora, Gap and Marks&Spencer.
Starbucks coffee shop chain, in Romania since 2007, has recently announced a change of business strategy, so it will step up expansion to double its network after having opened only one coffee shop in four years. The change of strategy is also because of the change of ownership, as Marinopoulos lost the franchise of the coffee shop chain.
Today Starbucks is present in Romania via a joint venture of several Bulgarian businesspeople and the parent company.
Greek-held Marinopoulos, one of the lowest-profile groups on the local market, had once held the franchises for Romania of Sephora – a top ten cosmetics retailer in Romania, Marks&Spencer, the British fashion brand that ended last year with EUR30 million revenue, Starbucks, the most important coffee shop chain in Romania and Gap, one of the world’s leading fashion brands.
The first to leave Marinopoulos was Marks&Spencer, which in 2012 decided to enter the Romanian market directly. The company applied the same business model in all the Balkan countries, choosing to drop its franchisees.
A similar move followed in 2013, when LVMH, world’s number one luxury industry company, whose brands include Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tag Heuer and Moet&Chandon, became the only shareholder of cosmetics retailer Sephora Romania. With a network of about 20 stores throughout the country and EUR32 million revenue last year, the luxury cosmetics retailer is one of the largest in Romania. Its rivals on this segment are Douglas and Marionnaud.
Whereas it lost the franchise for its most important brands to other shareholders or after the parent company decided for a direct presence, in Gap’s case Marinopoulos decided to close the stores on its own.
Marinopoulos closed all the Gap stores in Romania. The last store to close was the store in Baneasa Shopping City, which ceased operations this spring. The move meant the exit of the US brand from the local market. Gap is the world’s third leading fashion retailer after Inditex (Zara owner) and H&M.
The brand arrived in this country in 2009 and the first store opened in Baneasa Shopping City. Marinopoulos introduced the brand during the crisis and expanded cautiously, to three stores, according to ZF data.
When it first introduced Gap in Romania, the Greek company said it planned to expand the portfolio with other brands, such as Banana Republic, but the crisis and the aggressive expansion of the competition forced it to drop its plans.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)