After focusing on Bucharest and only three other cities, Cluj, Timisoara and Constanta, the chain is entering Iasi this year and looking at Craiova, Brasov and Sibiu.
“We are looking at Brasov, Sibiu and Craiova but our plan for the next five years also includes Oradea and Arad. We can get to 30 to 35 coffee shops in the next five years,” says Costin Gheorghiu, 34, district manager with Starbucks Romania.
He has been working for the company for seven years, even before the first coffee shops opened. He started out as a store manager in Plaza Romania, after which he moved to the mall in Vitan, Bucharest, where he stayed for two years. He then became district manager and is in charge of the entire network in Romania. Before joining Starbucks, Gheorghiu had worked in the same industry.
Starbucks changed strategy as of this year and stepped up expansion after having opened only one coffee shop in four years. That coffee shop was inaugurated in Promenada Mall in October 2013.
“We all know things have been rather difficult internationally in 2008-2012 but we’ve been seeing growth starting 2013.”
The company posted EUR7 million revenue in Romania in 2013, up 20% on 2012 and 66% higher than in 2010, the first year of crisis for which financial data are available.
“Sales have been going up year by year, we’re seeing a healthy growth for which reason we decided to expand. The power of the brand helps a lot.”
Starbucks arrived in Romania in 2007 and expanded cautiously for years. In 2014, it stepped up expansion and opened two coffee shops in Constanta and Pipera (northern Bucharest), announcing at least three more – Hanul lui Manuc in downtown Bucharest and two in Iasi, and three relocations in the coming months.
Starbucks closed the AFI Palace Cotroceni coffee shop but announced it signed a lease with the mall for another space there. It will also close the America House (Piata Victoriei) and Promenada Mall coffee shops and relocate them next year.
“Piata Victoriei remains an area we are interested in but we decided to move because the space in America House is quite small. We already have a deal with a property owner in the area for a space at the entrance to Calea Victoriei, which will be larger and allow us to arrange it differently. We hope to open it in the first quarter of 2015.”
The best-selling Starbucks coffee shops are those in Baneasa Shopping City and Bucuresti Mall, which serve 40,000 customers a week. The company focused on Bucharest but Gheorghiu says that Timisoara is the city with second-highest sales.
The change in the chain’s strategy came as a result of the change in ownership, after the Greek-held Marinopoulos lost the franchise. The company actually lost all the franchises it had in Romania, that is Sephora (direct entry on the market), Marks&Spencer (direct entry), Gap (stores closed) and Starbucks.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)