Last year, Kingfisher acquired the 15 DIY stores of Bricostore group in Romania for about EUR80 million and closed two of the four stores in Bucharest for the rebranding process. The stores will be rebranded as Brico Depot, a brand the group uses in France and Spain.
“We started the rebranding of our two first stores in Bucharest. These two stores are Pantelimon and Orhideea (east and center of the city i.e.). The opening of the two first Brico Depot will take place during the first quarter 2014,” Kingfisher officials told ZF.
The Bricostore network includes two more stores in Bucharest in Militari and Baneasa (west and north of the city) and also has a presence in major cities across the country such as Constanta, Brasov, Ploiesti, Pitesti and Oradea.
The UK group would not provide details about the rebranding pace, since the rest of the stores continue to operate as Bricostore.
“We will analyze in depth the results obtained in the first rebranded stores, before rolling out the process further,” the officials of the British group said. They did not provide any details about the budget allocated to the rebranding process, either.
With plans to expand the network to 50 stores, Kingfisher appears to be the biggest rival of the current market leader, Romanian-owned Dedeman, whose annual sales stand at EUR600 million generated by a network of 36 stores.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)