real,-Hypermarket Romania, the company that operated the hypermarkets from the start, posted losses each year since it entered the market, with their total amount going beyond EUR310 million.
In 2012, losses narrowed to EUR16.5 million, but in 2013 reached an all-time high, in the year when the company entered the portfolio of Auchan, which took over 20 of the German chain’s stores. The German company retained four stores, but they are now managed by another company, namely Real Hyper Magazine. The entity has not reported its figures, yet.
By edition close, Auchan representatives did not answer ZF’s request on the figures of real,- Hypermarket Romania and did not specify whether the financial figures are related only to the units taken over by the company or to all the 24 stores.
However, at the moment it reported 2013 figures, Auchan announced revenue of above EUR1 billion including the figures of Real stores taken over and refitted as Auchan.
real,- Hypermarket Romania in 2013 generated revenue of 2.27 billion lei (EUR513.5 million), down over 20% on the year. Each Real store had sales of EUR27 million on average in 2012. Thus, the sales gap between 2012 and 2013 can be generated by the lack of the four stores that were not taken over by Auchan, according with ZF figures.
In early April, Patrick Espasa, who has run Auchan’s Romanian operations until recently, stated the rebranding of Real stores generated losses of EUR15 million to the company. He did not specify whether the losses were registered by Auchan Romania or by real,- Hypermarket Romania. The executive also stated group Auchan would reach breakeven in Romania in two years.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)