The retailer’s revenue was close to 85 million lei (EUR19 million) in 2014, up almost 20%. Hervis also returned to profit last year.
“Romania is following in the footsteps of Western countries and more and more Romanians are exercising. We are talking mainly people aged 18 to 35 in the big cities of the country,” says Catalin Pozdarie, the Romanian executive in charge of the sporting goods retailer since January 2007, when it had not yet opened its first store in this country.
“This trend is not only visible in sales, but also in parks and on roads where we can see more and more people running and riding bicycles.”
Hervis, the sporting goods retail unit of Austria’s Spar, arrived in Romania in 2007 when it opened a store outside Bucharest and Pozdarie says his company continues to watch the other cities of Romania.
“We have 15 stores, one of which opened in Mega Mall (inaugurated in Bucharest this year i.e.). We are now in talks with two more developments but want to end the year with 18 stores.”
This year’s planned openings will take place in the rest of the country, but the Romanian executive says there is still room for two or three more stores in the capital city, in the western or northwestern part of Bucharest to be precise, where “there is nothing” at the moment. Pozdarie says areas like Bucurestii Noi (NW Bucharest) are not covered.
One third of the 15 stores of the retailer are in Bucharest, the main market for all retailers in Romania because wages here are 40% higher than the national average and unemployment is really low.
“If the purchasing power increases in the rest of the country we will go to more cities in Romania. We are conservative when it comes to openings and we only go where we can turn a profit in a short time.”
When Hervis entered Romania in 2007, it set out to expand to 40 stores in seven years. The target could be reached in another seven but it all depends on the performance of the economy, Pozdarie says.
“The business in Romania is going very well, and we will end the year with growth. Final figures will depend on the stability of the economy in the second half.”
Hervis operates on seven markets, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, that is Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania. Pozdarie says Austria is the number one market in Europe by sporting goods spending per capita, EUR270. A Romanian spends EUR25 for the same purpose. Catalin Pozdarie estimates the local sporting goods market at EUR500 million.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)