The figures take into account both the stores opened and the stores that may have been closed, as the group does not separately announce how many it opened and how many it closed.
This is the network’s slowest expansion pace since 2011. By comparison, the network has typically expanded with twice as many new stores in the last few years.
Moreover, back in its heyday, Mega Image would open more than 100 new supermarkets and convenience stores, making it the then champion of Romanian retail expansion. Today, those figures are just a memory. And when it comes to expansion, the Mega Image network is lagging behind or matched by several other networks, which was hard to imagine in 2014-2015.
It is also interesting to note that last year’s figures are much lower than those announced by the network’s representatives in mid-2022.
Specifically, company officials said then that “in 2022 we will open 75 new stores and remodel another 57. We are also betting on e-commerce development.”
So, either Mega Image opened twice as few stores as it set out to, or it closed a lot of stores to reach the figures published in the report of parent group Ahold Delhaize, which shows that the network grew by only 36 stores.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)