The Mobexpert network currently includes an outlet center in Pipera, northern Bucharest, where the retailer sells products from ranges that are about to be discontinued or products secured at a discount from manufacturers or distributors.
“We will open a new outlet in Pantelimon (eastern Bucharest) in a few weeks, which will have a floor area of 1,200 square meters. We are also focusing on the expansion of our traditional Mobexpert stores, we are even in talks to open new stores in Constanta and Cluj, at least one of which we hope will start operations in 2016,” Dan Sucu said.
“We are also looking at outlets, we want to have one in each region, because customers are starting to put price first.”
Romanian consumers are starting to look at price first after years of having their incomes and especially the budget for secondary needs like replacing furniture eroded by the crisis. The rise in salaries lately is giving them some extra income to use but they still cannot afford to buy more than mid-range products, so they will be looking for discounts more and more often.
“Unfortunately, some of the customers who once said they could not afford to buy cheap things cannot live by this principle anymore. We had to develop the low-end segment in terms of prices and promotions to be able to address this new demand, because people want low prices but quality products. We’ve had 14% average growth on this price level.”
Sucu says the Mobexpert outlet centers are not intended to be discount stores, but a better alternative to the discounts on the market. The regional outlet network the company wants to build could use existing Mobexpert stores, too. This means that in Constanta and Cluj, for instance, when the new stores Dan Sucu plans open, the old ones will be turned into regional outlets.
Mobexpert is resuming expansion outside Bucharest because the cities in the rest of the country are recovering from the crisis faster than the capital city does, Sucu added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)