In the past five years, hypermarket operators have opened 2-3 units each year in Bucharest, but companies have turned more cautious in the past year on the falling consumption and as shopping center developers halted their projects.
Over the past weeks, though, French-held Cora took down almost all buildings located on a platform near RATB Alexandria yard of southern Bucharest, where the fourth Cora hypermarket of Bucharest is set to be built in a year, German-owned Kaufland also started a new project and Carrefour is readying to open a store in Chitila.
Cora bought a land plot with an area of almost 4 hectares on Alexandriei main road from a firm controlled by businessman Ilie Carabulea of Sibiu and is set to build a hypermarket at one of the few city exit-ways lacking such a store. The area has a high population density, but the average incomes per inhabitant are lower than in other parts of the city.
German-held Kaufland, the more aggressive hypermarket network this year, with 7 units opened in Romania, also started works for a store in Bucharest, located at the crossroads between Racari street and Mihai Bravu. Works should be finalized in the autumn of 2012, with the store due to be located around 2 km away from Cora Sun Plaza and Real Vitan.
Kaufland and Cora representatives did not provide information on the value of investments in the two stores by edition close.
On the other hand, a Bucharest hypermarket where works have almost been completed is the one developed for Carrefour group in Chitila district. The unit is scheduled for opening in November and it will be part of Colosseum shopping park.
Bucharest now has 19 hypermarkets operated by five networks, Carrefour, Cora, Auchan, Real and Kaufland. The stores boasting the largest sales, Cora Lujerului, Auchan Titan and Carrefour Orhideea, were opened during the 2003-2006 period and reached a base of over 30,000 clients daily and sales of above EUR100 million per annum, almost impossible to reach in other cities in Romania.
One of the explanations is linked not only to the higher salary level in Bucharest, but also to the fact that against Bucharest’s population, the 20 hypermarkets are still few compared with other cities in the country.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)