The international retail chains opened 80 stores in the last ten months, taking the number of modern commerce formats to more than 260, and conquered the last untapped Romanian county, Neamt.
The more crowded the big cities become in terms of modern format stores, the more the international retailers are drawn to towns with even less than 20,000 inhabitants commenting that the low incomes of the consumers do not prevent them from stepping up expansion pace. The discount sector, the most dynamic sector of the Romanian retail market, will double in number of outlets this year, to approximately 200 supermarkets and hypermarkets. The modern retail formats will total about 450 outlets by the end of the year, according to a survey by MEMRB Retail Tracking Services.
The latest opening of the discount hypermarket chain Kaufland at the end of January was a first for the retail sector: the international retail chains have now penetrated all the counties of the country, even those that foreign FMCG distribution companies had previously avoided. Neamt county, bottom of the list of counties in terms of average wage (according to the official statistics), was the last left untapped by foreign trade companies. Kaufland invested 7 million euros to open the first and only modern retail outlet in Neamt county on January 25.
"When we opened the outlet in Piatra Neamt we saw what people buy and how people are buying. The official statistics of average incomes in this area do not verify what we have experienced," stated Gunter Grieb, general manager of the Kaufland Romania network. The counties in northern Moldova, such as Botosani, Vaslui and Suceava are mentioned in the official statistics as areas where the average wage is up to 26% lower than the national average (230 euros, according to the data for the first eight months of 2006), yet the total incomes of the inhabitants, which also include those earned abroad, are more interesting for the foreign retailers.
"The number of inhabitants and the lack of competitors were more relevant than the statistics about average incomes, in the decision to chose the city of Piatra Neamt as a location for opening," Gunter Grieb stated. "The entire country is interesting from our point of view," Grieb added. Botosani and Neamt were the only two counties not included on the list of any international retailer last June, according to a survey of the MEMRB Retail Tracking Services.
"The territorial expansion of the major retail chain will surely generate an increase in consumption in general, especially through the prices. The hypermarket (in its standard format i.e.) is the only store format Moldova is lacking at the moment, but I am positive this problem will be addressed soon," stated Marius Caluian, general manager of MEMRB Retail Tracking Services Romania. Carrefour announced the opening of a hypermarket in Iasi, in the second half of this year. Plus Discount was the first international company to enter the market of Botosani last July, even though, according to statistics, the net average wage of the inhabitants in the county stood at 190 euros, approximately 17% lower than the national average (National Statistics Institute data for the first eight months of 2006). Botosani ranked 33rd out of 42 counties in this respect.
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