DIY retail, a EUR4 billion market, did not feel the effects of the coronavirus crisis as many Romanians used the extra time they spent home do some renovation in their homes.
“We may say that during the time most people spent isolating in their homes, the time allocated and interest in renovation significantly increased, so the DIY became one of the main activities inside the home,” says Frederic Lamy, CEO of DIY retailer Leroy Merlin in Romania.
Once the movement restrictions lifted, the hotel operators, especially those on the seaside, expect their guests and say the summer months look to be busy. The Pentecost holiday on the June 7 weekend should see more than 10,000 tourists in 120 seaside hotels alone, the data supplied by Ionut Nedelea, general manager of the litoralulromanesc.ro platform show.
“The seaside will be packed, considering the reservations already made and that we are still getting requests by phone from tourists,” says Andreea Lungu, manager of the four-star Malibu Hotel in the seaside resort of Mamaia.
“People have relaxed and are now starting to make reservations and plan vacations. July and August are already fully booked,” Andreea Lungu added.
Restaurants are feeling the euphoria, too, after taking a hit in the last few months when they had to stay closed. However, many of them turned to deliveries.
“We have a lot of new partners that decided to use foodpanda. The platform has added more than 1,000 restaurants in the country in the past two months, so now we have a total of 3,000 partner restaurants,” said Andreea Petrisor, managing director of Foodpanda Romania.
Farmers, too, have found a solution to cope, starting platforms to sell their products and reach customers faster.
“There was this wave of setting up a lot of [online] farm product platforms. We thought about it, so did many others. How long we will remain on the market, that depends on the trend of the demand. If demand drops and it is no longer profitable, we will give up, even though I like what I’m doing and would like to develop,” says Anca Alistar, founder of Legume de la productori platform.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)