Statistics say the purchasing power of the people in Romania is very low. Yet those merchants that did not buy into the statistics and ventured to open stores in Romania only stood to gain.
"Had we acted on the market surveys, we would never have come to Romania. When we came to Romania in 1999 we relied on our instincts rather than anything else," said Jean Michel Arlaud, general manager of the Hyparlo Group, which is set to open the third Carrefour on the Romanian market today.
The Carrefour stores on the Romanian market are operated by Hiproma, a joint-venture of the French Carrefour Group and one of its important franchisees, another French company, Hyparlo, wherein each of them holds 50% and which is run by Hyparlo.
The first Carrefour hypermarket opened in Romania in the Militari area (Bucharest) in 2001 saw sales three times higher in its first six months in business compared to the potential revealed by market surveys, Arlaud explained.
"A market survey on the potential in Romania, a country that had had no wide surface retailers until we came along, is hard to do, indeed," Arlaud added. He says the two Carrefour hypermarkets in Bucharest (Militari - west of the city and Orhideea - downtown), accounted for 13% of the turnover Hyparlo, one of the most important franchisees of French Carrefour Group, derived from its twelve hypermarkets in France.
"By 2006, the turnover in Romania will account for half of the turnover we make in France, only to exceed that in 2010," Arlaud specified. Given the growth pace by two hypermarkets a year, Carrefour will have 15 stores operational in Romania by 2010, Hiproma's executive manager says.
Carrefour's third hypermarket in Bucharest will be yet another novelty for the Romanian market, as this will be the first time when two stores of this kind will be directly competing. Carrefour Colentina is located very close to another hypermarket in Eastern Bucharest, which is operated by France-based Cora Group.
"It is only natural for competition to develop between players on a very dynamic and growing market," says Regis Mougel, general manager of Cora Romania, the company that opened its first hypermarket in the Pantelimon area in Eastern Bucharest last fall. Mougel says Cora will dedicate another hypermarket on the location of the former Miorita dairy in the West of the city, sandwiching it between the two Carrefours operational at the moment.
The third Carrefour, i.e. the one in Colentina is a 35-million euro investment, its commercial area reaches 9,000 sqm and the shopping gallery comprises 31 stores.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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