The first 2,000 square meter Kaufland will open in Gherla, Cluj County (NW Romania), sources close to the company said. Gherla has a population of 20,000 people.
The German-held retailer chose this format as a result of the decision to cut the investment budget.
“The new format will carry fewer products because of less floor space. The main problem of this new type of store is that the procurement department of the company will have to negotiate separately for it and not together with the rest of the network,” the quoted sources say.
Kaufland has opened stores of 2,500 to 5,000 square meters in Romania so far. The largest of them are in Bucharest and the smallest in other cities.
If the 2,000 square meter store format turns out to be successful, the company plans to expand the network to 100 stores by the end of 2014.
While its competitors on the hypermarket segment went to big cities, of more than 100,000 people, Kaufland also went to cities of 30,000 people, because its stores cover up to 5,500 square meters.
The investment in a Kaufland store amounts to EUR7 million to EUR10 million, including the price of the land. The new 2,000 square meter stores will require half of that, according to ZF’s estimates.
Kaufland has 84 stores in Romania, three of which opened since the beginning of the year. It will open a total of 8 to 9 stores in 2013. The retailer posted EUR1.31 billion sales in 2011, according to the latest available data, which puts it in the lead in the local retail.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)