Kiabi registers revenues of about EUR1 billion and operates a network of 450 stores worldwide.
The retailer has already closed the store in Titan (eastern Bucharest) and the last to be closed will be the store in the Orhideea shopping center.
Another retailer selling apparel at a discount, Sprider, announced it would sell its operations in Romania a few days ago. On the other hand, companies like Zara, Lee Cooper and New Yorker, which charge more for their products, continue to open stores, after having seen revenue rise year after year.
Kiabi announced its intention to leave Romania about a month ago, after having witnessed a decline in revenue compared with 2010.
The retailer held by the Mulliez family, which also controls the Auchan hypermarkets, the sports goods retailer Decathlon or the do-it-yourself chain Leroy Merlin, did not publish its 2011 results on the Finance Ministry’s website. The Kiabi stores, managed by Roumaki Distribution, posted 47 million lei (EUR11 million) in sales and losses of about one million euros in 2010.
Kiabi entered the local market in 2009, the first year when the economy was hurt by the crisis. The retailer relied on its discount policy in a time when the price had become the most important factor for the decision to buy something. Still, three years later, it decided to exit the market.
“The store in Titan will close soon, but we don’t know exactly when, either,” said one of the sales clerks. Customers are no longer allowed to enter.
A representative of the store in Orhideea (central Bucharest) said “our store will remain open until August 31. The other stores will close before us, we are the last to go.”
The retailer invested about EUR3 million in its six Romanian stores and planned to have 20 stores operational by the end of 2014.
When they first announced plans to leave the market, the officials of the retailer said they were looking for a partner to take over the Romanian stores. There is no information about a buyer being found so far.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)