“The store in Piata Romana (which operates in a historic building in central Bucharest i.e.) was a challenge for the company (…) but is the top performer in Romania now,” says Cornelia Nicolae, Stefanel country manager.
“Stefanel Concept Store contributes about 25% of our sales. Our customers spend more than one hour in this store and EUR6,000 per season on average.”
Cornelia Nicolae became Stefanel’s country manager in 2011, promoted from area sales manager. She has been in the fashion business for almost two decades.
Her coming to Stefanel during the crisis meant a cautious expansion in the first few years but this year the company will step up expansion to three stores.
“We will open two new stores this year, one in Mega Mall, the newest and biggest mall in Bucharest, and in one in Iulius Mall Cluj. Sibiu is on our list, as well, but we are in talks for the time being.”
Stefanel has ten stores in Romania and Cornelia Nicolae says she is not planning to close any of them.
Unlike most retailers, which chose only shopping centers and malls, Stefanel has and continues to look for street front locations, as well. Three of the ten stores are street front stores, and the company is looking for a street front space in Sibiu, too.
“Stefanel is the longest-standing fashion brand that entered Romania and remains a niche brand. In 2014, we bet on premium services (consultants, coffee served to the customers of the Piata Romana store i.e.) and saw about EUR6 million sales.”
The 2013 sales stood at almost EUR5 million, according to publicly available data. This year started with better results than in 2014, Cornelia Nicolae said.
More than half of Stefanel’s customers are recurring customers and they are the most loyal customers of the brand in the entire Europe. This is one of the main reasons for Stefanel’s continued operation in Romania unlike other fashion brands that left and then returned, the other being the extremely cautious expansion policy, Cornelia Nicolae added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)