French fashion brand Mim opened its first Romanian store on November 20 in Bucharest, in Carrefour Orhideea, and a second store in Cora Pantelimon. The investment in a Mim store amounts to EUR100,000, excluding the merchandise stock. The French brand competes with Terranova and H&M price-wise.
Mim was brought to the Romanian market by Philippe Besadoux, head of Kenvelo, and by Stephane Lahaye, CEO of financial group Lea Finance.
Another retailer to enter the mass-market segment of the Romanian market is Polish footwear retailer Kazar, which opened its first Romanian store in Bucharest’s latest shopping center Promenada Mall. Romania is the first external market for the brand that holds around 50 stores in Poland.
Italian menswear brand Antony Morato, which is somewhere between mass -market and luxury, opened its first store in Romania on luxury street Calea Victoriei and in several main Romanian cities.
Jewelry brand Roberto Bravo, which was brought to the Romanian market under franchise by Romanian Loredana Guzgan and by Asim Akduman, plans to open at least ten more stores in Romania over the next five years. This would mean keeping this year’s expansion rate. The brand’s first two stores in Romania were opened this year, both of them in Bucharest, on Calea Victoriei street and in Promenada Mall.
Towards the end of 2013, Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana officially opened its first monobrand stores in Romania in shopping gallery The Grand Avenue on the ground-floor of Bucharest’s five-star JW Marriott hotel. The investment in a luxury store ranges between several thousand euros and EUR1.5 million, depending on the location, furniture and other standards imposed by the fashion house.
The brand has been brought under franchise by Robert Coman, one of the founders of IT distributor and retailer Best Computers, who is currently involved in business in the energy sector. The entrepreneur has two more monobrand stores in Marriott’s shopping gallery – Valentino and Roberto Cavalli, which he had brought to Romania in the past two years.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)