Only one of the 13 modern retail chains managed to boost sales per store. Convenience supermarket chain Profi, held by Polish investment fund Enterprise Investors, posted a little more than EUR2 million in sales per store last year, up 14% compared with the previous year. The network has the lowest per store sales of the entire modern retail sector.
Profi was acquired by Enterprise Investors at the end of 2009 and has been aggressively expanding ever since. It currently has more than 120 stores, double as many as it had at the time of the takeover. It ended last year with EUR220 million in sales, up 50% in euros.
While Profi is at the bottom of the ranking in terms of sales per store, three large format networks, Auchan, Selgros and Cora are at the top.
This is because Profi, and the other supermarket and discount store chains, most often operate stores of less than 1,000 square meters and carry a low number of products.
Hypermarkets and cash&carry stores may exceed 10,000 square meters and carry tens of thousands of products.
Auchan, Selgros and Cora’s sales per store stand at more than EUR40 million. ZF’s calculations started from the 2011 results of these companies.
To get the data about per store sales, the calculations were done without taking into account the opening date of the stores. The same method was used in 2010, as well.
The top three retailers by sales per store witnessed decline compared with 2010. Cora’s sales per store fell by 38% according to ZF’s calculations, from more than EUR65 million.
The total revenue of the retailer went down slightly (less than 1%) in 2011, even though the company opened three new hypermarkets.
The decline of sales per store caused Cora to drop two positions in the ranking from the first to the third place.
“The revenue of the old stores was comparable to 2010 last year, and therefore we may say the sales of those stores were stable. In 2011, Cora Romania focused on expansion by small stores, of 5,000 square meters, which means lower revenue thereof compared with traditional stores,” says Ana Maria Florea, PR representative of Cora Romania. “For instance, Cora Pantelimon (east of Bucharest) covers 16,000 square meters.”
She added that since the new stores did not operate for a full year, they did not have time to generate significant revenue. “If you add the sales of all stores and divide them by eight, you get a lower value than in 2010, when they were divided by five.”
The top performer in terms of sales per store, Auchan, too, saw sales per store go down by almost 20%. The company officials had not returned ZF’s calls for comment on this decline by the time the story was ready for posting.
Consumer spending continued the decline last year, a trend that started in 2009. It, however, slowed down to 3%.
Selgros’ sales per store fell at the same rate as the consumer spending. Selgros owns 19 stores, the last of which opened in December 2011.
“The sales of our stores followed the consumer spending trend because of a number of factors. First of all we adjusted our offer to the market conditions. Second, we have a one-on-one relationship with our customers, which helps ensure their loyalty,” said Alexandru Vlad, the Romanian in change of the network. The third reason he gave was that cash&carry stores usually need up to five years to fully develop. “The stores opened a longer while ago reached maturity. This showed in their sales and in the total sales of the network,” he concluded.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)
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Retailer
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Sales per store 2011 (millions of euros)
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Sales per store 2010 (millions of euros)
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Trend (%)
|
|
Auchan Romania
|
41.37
|
50.95
|
-18.80
|
|
Selgros
|
41.05
|
42.58
|
-3.59
|
|
Romania Hypermarche (Cora)
|
40.64
|
65.52
|
-37.97
|
|
Carrefour Romania
|
38.05
|
40.57
|
-6.22
|
|
Metro Cash&Carry
|
36.60
|
41.89
|
-12.64
|
|
Real
|
28.40
|
31.24
|
-9.08
|
|
Kaufland*
|
19.01
|
19.17
|
-0.83
|
|
Billa Romania
|
4.36
|
4.94
|
-11.82
|
|
Rewe Romania (Penny Market)
|
3.23
|
3.32
|
-2.86
|
|
Lidl Discount
|
3.07
|
3.23
|
-4.88
|
|
Mega Image
|
2.74
|
2.92
|
-6.14
|
|
Artima**
|
2.74
|
3.04
|
-10.06
|
|
Profi Rom Food
|
2.04
|
1.79
|
14.09
|
* ZF estimate based on the previous sales trend
** Carrefour’s supermarket division
Source: Trade Registry. ZF
