Carrefour Romania, which will open a new hypermarket in Cluj-Napoca next month, says it has experienced recruitment problems due to the large number of jobs offered in the region's retail sector.
Cluj-Napoca's first Carrefour outlet will employ 600 individuals and will be located in the Polus shopping centre, which has created around 2,000 jobs in the region in total. Another project under development in Cluj-Napoca is the Iulius Mall, which will include an Auchan hypermarket with 450 employees and a staff of around 2,000 in total.
Five weeks ago the two competitors, Auchan and Carrefour, organised their own job fairs in the city and are set to open their stores one week apart from each other during the middle of next month.
According to the official statistics, the level of unemployment in Cluj county is currently below 3%.
Jacobo Caller Celestino, the general manager of Carrefour Romania, said the network's older outlets have not witnessed any sale slumps this year, despite tightening competition on the market.
"In the next five years, I don't think we will be able to talk about a mature market. As yet, there are many areas with no form of modern trade," added Andreea Mihai, a marketing manager with Carrefour Romania.
The company announced its intention to continue its aggressive marketing campaign in order to maintain its position as market leader in terms of sales on the segment of hypermarkets. Carrefour has recently launched a loyalty card in partnership with the financial institution BRD Finance, which specialises in consumer lending. According to Carrefour representatives, a quarter of payments in network stores are made by bank cards, with the percentage rising.
The company's development strategy also entails a higher percentage of its private label products in overall sales. These products now account for around 5% of the company's turnover, that is approximately 18m euros in the first half of the year.
"We want our Tex brand to account for over 50% of the network's textile sales," stated Celestino. According to company data, Tex currently accounts for 9.5% of textile sales in Carrefour outlets.
Domestic Carrefour sales went up by 43.8% in the first half of 2007 against the same period last year, to 361.9m euros (VAT included), according to the data released by the French group. The company opened two hypermarkets in H1 2007, in Baneasa and Constanta, with the network reaching a total of 7 stores by the end of H1.
At present, the network operates eight domestic hypermarkets and will open another two, in Iasi and Cluj-Napoca, by the end of the year. Carrefour has announced seven openings for next year, the fastest rate of expansion registered since the retailer arrived on the Romanian market in 2001.
However, Carrefour will face tougher competition with the arrival of rival networks, Auchan and Real international.
Carrefour Romania
The network owns 8 domestic stores and will open another two, in Iasi and Cluj-Napoca, by yearend
Cluj-Napoca's first Carrefour outlet will employ 600 people and will be located in Polus shopping centre
The network's older outlets have not posted any sale slumps this year, despite tightening competition on the market
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