Kaufland is thus cementing its position of grocery retail leader and is the only one in this business to have overshot the RON10 billion mark. Only two other groups in Romania’s economy have been able to achieve this feat – Renault-owned Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. Austria’s OMV owns two companies with revenue above this threshold – OMV Petrom SA (production) and OMV Petrom Marketing (gas stations).
The rising consumer spending the and economic growth overall as well as the expansion though at a slower pace, kept Kaufland’s revenue on an upward trend.
The company opened four permanent stores and a temporary one last year, which is highest expansion pace since arrival on the market. The retailer will step up expansion in 2018, having budgeted ten openings, three of which already done in the first two months of the year. The retailer will therefore grow to 126 low-price hypermarkets.
The fast-paced expansion should generate double-digit growth in revenue, as Kaufland budgeted. The first two months were good for the retailers’ business, which did not feel the impact on the fiscal overhaul. Consumer spending continued its fast-paced rise as in the past two years.
It also rose by 11.1% in January compared with the year-ago month. January 2018 was the seventh month of more than 10% growth of the retail sales, the best indicator of consumer spending, according to the National Statistics Institute data.
Kaufland is not the only one to have felt this consumer spending rise, rivals Carrefour and Lidl, too, posted growth. The three are the largest grocery retailers in the country, with RON24 billion to RON25 billion revenue together, according to ZF estimates. The entire grocery retail sector is valued at about RON90 billion. (EUR1=RON4.6592)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)