Top players in food retail, generating cumulated turnover worth 5bn euros, namely almost 20% of the entire consumer goods trade, are following a downward trend in terms of sales per square metre, as a result of the rising competition on the market. The 10,000 euro/sqm sales registered by hypermarkets, which placed the Romanian market on the second position in Europe after France in 2006, are becoming history.
The over 1bn-euro investments in expansion carried out in the past two years have brought them an over 20% increase in sales areas, but the turnover growth pace, 14%, lagged behind this rate, which has led to shrinking productivity among trade leaders, reveals a ZF survey conducted on the basis of data provided by companies and on market information.
ZF analysed the performance of the two largest players operating on the segments of hypermarkets, supermarkets, cash & carry stores and discounter stores, reporting sales they generated against the operated sales areas, with this being the most important performance gauge in retail. Networks' sales areas were adjusted depending on the dates the new stores of 2007 and 2008 were opened at, for an accurate market research.
The ranking is pointing to a leader change: Carrefour, the most productive retailer in 2007 in terms of sales per square metre, was last year surpassed by Metro Cash & Carry, the network with the biggest sales in food retail. The two players continue to lead in the most productive networks' ranking, despite the declining value of sales/square metre in 2008.
Carrefour last year posted the biggest productivity drop, of around 30%. In its turn, Real, Carrefour's main rival on this market saw flat sales per square metre in 2008 compared with 2007.
Ionut Pascu, project manager with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Romania, says stagnating or falling sales per square metre can be explained by the aggressive expansion of players on this segment.
The cash & carry segment also posted shrinking sales per square metres last year. On the supermarket segment, Billa, the biggest player, last year saw sales in euros stagnate at the level of 2007. The only segment that posted higher sales per square metre in 2008 was that of discounters.
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