Dan Ostahie, chairman of Altex, a retailer of electronics and electrical home appliances, stated the team that would manage the company's operations in Ukraine would be completed by next January, with a domestic recruitment firm also being hired to this end.
The company announced the opening of the first Media Galaxy store in Odessa next August in Riviera Shopping City Mall II developed by Argo Real Estate investment fund.
"It will be a multinational in the real sense of the word. The management will include a mix of seniors of Ukrainian and Romanian origin and maybe even an expat," said Ostahie.
He added the period when preparations would be made for the opening of the first store of Altex abroad and for the finalisation of the domestic strategy would last for around six months.
In one or two years, Ostahie expects Romanian expats to want to return to Romania and this is why he wants to include as many local managers as possible as the company expands its retail network.
At present, Altex' development strategy for Ukraine entails the opening of a Media Galaxy in each of the four shopping complexes to be developed by Argo Real Estate.
Previously, Ostahie announced that for this project, whose initial investments amount to 10m euros, he would also look for a financial partner with an established local position, which would own 30%. "Initially, Argo had 10 projects planned, but depending on the trend of the market four are definite ones for the time being. We'll see, but meanwhile we're in talks for other locations, as well," added Ostahie.
The company also carries out the domestic expansion project, so as to reach a retail area of 90,000 square metres by the end of the year, which is why a Media Galaxy store was opened in the retail project developed by BelRom in Focsani.
As regards the company's results, Ostahie mentioned Altex was getting close to the 400m-euro sales target set for 2008, despite a weaker than expected September.
"September was weaker, but we had very good July and August figures. We are on schedule and future increases will also come from the new stores," stated Ostahie.
In H1, Altex reached 170m-euro turnover, up 47% from the same period of 2007, with the operating margin revolving around 2% (3.4m euros).
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