How a 45m-euro retail business ran out of steam in one year

One year from voluntary insolvency, SPAR, held by brothers Ioan and Floare Cuc in Arad is now left with 25-30 of the over 700 employees it had at the end of 2008, after it dropped retail operations.

This is the second operator on the market, after Pic hypermarket chain, to drop its core business - retail - because of losses it had accumulated and because of suppliers' reluctance to work with an insolvent store chain.
"The company no longer operates stores, but grants the SPAR franchise. The employees working in the stores taken over by other investors have largely been taken over by the new store operators," said representatives of the judicial manager of SPAR SRL in Arad.
In 2008 - the company's best year - turnover had reached 45 million euros, and the SPAR chain counted 20 supermarkets and one hypermarket. At the end of the year the Cuc brothers, however, lost a deal put at over 20 million euros with a foreign investment fund interested in taking over the chain amid the financial crisis, with the consumption decline and pressure of bank loans forcing shareholders to file for insolvency. Over the last year the operator has sought to renegotiate all rental contracts, but closed seven stores because of the too high prices and shed around 500 jobs as part of the chain's reorganisation.