Pestos, the Romanian-held footwear and accessories retailer thatowns Il Passo brand and franchises for Tosca Blu and Bagatt stores,for the first time in the ten years it has operated domesticallysaw its sales drop by 35% in euros.
The reason? RON decline, partner (malls and banks)inflexibility, but also the warm weather of October and Novemberthat hurt sales of last collection footwear, according to thecompany's representatives.
The decline started being felt in late 2008, problems aggravatedin March and the autumn/winter 2009/2010 season is marked by thesame steep drop.
"The stores of Bucharest are more seriously hurt than those ofother cities (...) One can feel the cash has run out and theinstability, particularly in the budgetary sector," Petru Chiriac,one of the two shareholders in the company with 4.9m-euro turnoverin 2008, up 30% year-on-year, told ZF.
The retailer tried to counter the crisis fallout throughinternal measures, slashing expenses by as much as 30%, but alsothrough discussions with shopping centres on rent cuts or withbanks.
At present, the company owns eight Il Passo multibrand stores.As regards the two franchises, the company did not embraceaggressive expansion and preferred, in the case of Bagatt productsto create corners inside Il Passo stores.
Although in November it opened an Il Passo store in Cotroceni,the company has no other concrete plans for the future.
"Shopping centres will still be basic. Romania is the onlycountry where malls are positioned in the centre of cities. I don'tknow how many of them will still operate in the future or how manywill bring constant traffic, but this is retailers' bestalternative," believes Chiriac, while admitting he will never againsee the 30% sales increases of late 2007, early 2008.
"For this year, we estimate the same turnover in RON (18m RON).In spring-summer we'll have the same results, maybe 10% higher, butwe'll try to cover accumulated debts and losses and we'll see thefirst increases as late as next autumn," Chiriac says.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
