Modern retail players embarked upon aggressive expansion starting 2009 and since that time the total number of stores has tripled. However, while in their first years in Romania networks bet on large stores, they subsequently shifted to supermarkets and proximity stores.
During this period, though, Romanians’ consumption behavior has changed and they started preferring proximity stores. “Consumption behavior has changed, the era of hypermarkets is gone, now the bet is on proximity stores. Gas is expensive, closeness to home matters,” says Sorana Georgia, the executive officer of Billa supermarket chain, with 84 stores. The company opened five units this year and closed one, in Carei.
This year, Billa has opted for stores with an average sales area ranging between 500 and 1,200 square meters.
In this context, networks have started bringing new, smaller formats, or adjusting existent ones. International players have in recent years made ever deeper inroads into small Romanian merchants’ ground, a market of EUR8 billion and 70,000-80,000 stores.
Retailers present in Romania are expanding further even as consumption has not given any signs of a rebound in recent years.
In the first months of 2014, the number of stores in modern retail rose by 143, but the number of openings was bigger as networks also closed down units.
Belgium’s Mega Image is still the “champion” of expansion, with over 50 new units in 2014 alone. Overall, the group had 350 stores in Romania in late September.
While most stores that were opened were small area ones, eight hypermarkets were also launched, by Kaufland (7) and Carrefour (1). As a matter of fact, the leader of Romanian retail, Kaufland, is also the retailer that invested the most in expansion, EUR50-70 million in seven hypermarkets, according to ZF estimates. The sum includes the price of land.
At the opposite end, four networks, Metro Cash&Carry, Selgros, Cora and Real, opened no new units in 2014.
Retailers’ plans will not stop here, though, as there is room for modern retail to double the number of stores in the next five years.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)