This means the network plans to expand by more than 1,000 stores, drive sales up by 130% and double market share, ZF has calculated.
The retailer should achieve growth from fast-paced expansion at a rate of hundreds of stores a year, as until now. However, it will not only develop by opening new stores but also by buying some, such as the recent deal in which it bought ten stores from Pronto Mobile SRL, which operated under the Carrefour Express franchise. The deal is now being reviewed by the Competition Council. Pronto, as ZF found, was Carrefour’s largest franchisee and had stores only in Bucharest.
This is only the latest acquisition of local stores for Profi. The retailer has bought a number of entrepreneurial networks such as Maya and Alcomsib over the years. The advantage of buying local actors is that the stores come with a good location and loyal customers.
Most Romanian stores are either convenience stores or supermarkets, so they can be acquired by the large international actors operating similar formats.
Profi has three formats in Romania – Standard (regular, large stores up to 550 square meters of floor space), City (150 to 250 square meter stores in cities) and Loco (rural areas). It has recently introduced a new retail format, convenience stores Profi Go, which sell products likely to be impulse buys.
The retailer posted RON8.8 billion sales in 2020, an increase of 21.5% on 2019, driven by expansion and like-for-like growth.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)