The French who defined the hypermarket concept in Romania haveseen their market share shrink from almost 50% to 29% over the lastthree years, as a result of the aggressive expansion of the Germannetworks operating in the same field and of the sudden halt ininvestments of the French company in Romania in 2009, ZF estimatesshow.
The retailer, which opened the first hypermarket in Romania in2001, is now seeing its market leader position threatened, but isnot fighting back yet.
The first year when the major food store chains were faced withdeclines in consumption on the Romanian market brought a 180 degreeturn in the strategy of the French retailer on its most importantmarket, hypermarkets. In 2009, the company completed only twoexpansion projects and dropped one location in Braila, while theGermans at Real and Kaufland gained ground by opening four and sixnew stores.
The halt in Carrefour's expansion investments is even moresurprising considering the network announced in 2008 it had plansto expand at a pace of seven hypermarkets a year until 2012, and in2007 was negotiating acquisitions of supermarkets and discountersto tap into a second market segment in Romania.
"Carrefour Group has no intention to stop expansion in Romania,"Carrefour Group officials said, without providing furtherinformation.
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