“Retail Center Association has concluded a subfranchise contract with Retail D&I, which operates eight stores under the Spar and Spar Express brands since 2009,” RCA said in a news release Monday.
Short-term plans for the franchise include the launch of new stores under the brands Eurospar, Spar and Spar Express.
RCA’s medium-term strategy involves development on a regional and national level, thorugh the launch of new stores and through subfranchising.
Spar entered the Romanian market in 2005, as a franchise. Spar Romania, part of Astral Impex, owned by Ioan and Floarea Cuc, went insolvent in July 2009, because of the financial crisis. The two businesspeople granted the Spar franchise to other investors as well in Romania.
Last year, Spar sales dove 46% in Romania, to EUR10 million, from EUR18.4 million, as store numbers halved to 7 from 14.