Austrian furniture retailer kika, which opened its first store on the local market in December last year, posted monthly average sales worth 1.2 million euros in 2009, ZF has calculated based on data provided by the company. Kika registered about 60,000 shoppers every month, and the average value of a cash receipt stood at 15-30 euros.
These are the first data about the sales of the company since its entry on the local market following a 31 million-euro investment in a 27,000 square metre store west of Bucharest.
"We cannot compare the results since the opening in Romania with those in other countries because over the last ten years kika has invested in countries like the Czech Republic, Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia, which are close to Austria and familiar with the brands in this country. In Romania we started promoting from scratch," Werner Grassmann, general manager of kika Romania said.
In 2007, the first year in business in Romania, average monthly sales of IKEA stood at 6.5 million euros.
"IKEA is one of the icons of furniture retail, because the brand experience is so strong that it dwarfs the product itself. IKEA has become a mall where you go for a walk, to eat or have fun," believes Aneta Bogdan, managing partner of branding agency Brandient.
Higher promotional expenses, rising sales every month; this is what the first months of the term of Werner Grassmann at kika Romania look like.
Grassmann says that he has been applying a different promotion strategy over the last few months, focusing on the West of Bucharest, which has led to a 5-10% increase in sales compared with January-March period.
"We spent more money on advertising, but we also changed how we do it. We used to distribute leaflets everywhere in Bucharest. But it was hard for customers to come to Militari from the opposite end of Bucharest. It would take them one hour, one hour and a half. Over the last two months, we’ve noticed most of our clients are from our area. The focus is on these clients, now," Grassmann told ZF in an interview.
Grassmann, 54, who took the reins this March, says the advertising of other companies located in the same area has had a positive influence on the sales of kika, as it boosted traffic in western Bucharest.
According to Grassmann, the results since the entry on the Romanian market are in line with initial expectations, with the monthly growth pace likely to maintain at up to 10%.
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