Billa closes Suceava store despite having signed 25-year lease

Billa supermarket network, part of Germany's Rewe, shut down its store in Suceava before Christmas, which had operated since November 2008 on a plot of land rented for 25 years from Suceava businessman Ioan Iftodi.

"The closedown of Suceava store was strictly a business decision for an area with a weaker economic performance than forecast. The employees of Suceava subsidiary received the severance pays required by the law and also counselling for finding a new job. It is the first Billa store closed in Romania, for business reasons as I said. Like in Romania and the other countries, Billa is a stable and strong company," maintains Filip Cristescu, COO with Billa Romania. He did not specify the financial figures of Suceava store.
The land the store was built on was rented over a 25-year period, but Cristescu did not specify the value of the deal or the company's plans as regards the destination the space filled by the store will have.
Suceava is the Romanian city with the highest density of modern shopping spaces. Four companies have in recent years built over 100,000 square metres for the around 100,000 inhabitants of the city, so that density has rapidly reached one square metre of retail per capita, higher than in Bucharest and similar with that of Prague or Warsaw.