G'Market reported sales worth some 47.6 million euros last year, up by 20% compared with the previous period.
Gimrom Holding, the operator of the G'Market supermarkets, plans to boost sales by 25% in the four outlets it opened prior to 2006. The company may close this year with turnover worth some 60 million euros and with a network comprising 6 outlets, according to the information provided by Gimrom representatives.
"We will expand the surface of the supermarket we own within Bucuresti Mall by 400 square metres this year. The forecast regarding the surge in sales reported by the four outlets we opened before 2006 is based on the estimated rise in the number of customers, as well as on the increase in the consumers' incomes in the wake of the EU integration," said Erol Inaltekin, the marketing manager of Gimrom Holding.
The growth seen last year was triggered almost exclusively by the four outlets, which had been operating for more than a year, because the latest store was opened as early as at the end of last year.
The network purchased the Univers'all store based in Iasi in 2006, through a transaction worth about one million euros, and reopened it under G'Market brand at the end of the year. The company posted sales amounting to some 40 million euros in 2005, when it owned four outlets, three in Bucharest and one in Iasi.
"We will open a new store this year in Moldova region and we will employ approximately 120 people for this purpose," Erol Inaltekin also said.
The network currently comprises five stores, three of which are located in Bucharest. In the autumn of 2005, after the rebranding process through which the GIMA supermarkets became G'Market, Gimrom Holding announced it would continue the investments on the domestic market.
"The retail market in Romania keeps growing, all the players are expanding and thus the consumers have more options now. I believe differentiation guarantees the success of a company on this market," said Inaltekin.
Gimrom Holding is the retail branch of the Turkish group FIBA, which also comprises Anchor Grup, Finans Leasing and Finansbank Romania. The G'Market network entered the domestic market seven years ago, when Bucuresti Mall, part of the same group was opened, and was one of the first international players that entered the domestic retail market.
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