Modern retail has expanded to over 340 units within the past year, whist hypermarkets and discount stores boasted the most dynamic growth in the wake of investments worth almost half of billion euros, which were conducted between October 2006 and October 2007.
In the above-mentioned period, Sibiu, Constanta and Mures witnessed the most activity, shows a survey conducted by market research agency MEMRB Retail Tracking Services.
At the other end of the spectrum are counties with a low degree of modern retail, which only feature discount networks and failed to attract any investments over the past year.
These counties are Botosani, Tulcea, Teleorman and Buzau, which are almost entirely dominated by traditional trade.
Whereas hypermarkets and cash & carry networks are waiting for the eastern and southern Romania to develop in order to push ahead, discount stores are less reluctant in their expansion moves.
In terms of branches, discount stores (such as Plus, Penny Market, Profi and MiniMax) account for over one third of the market, but their share of the FMCG sector, in terms of value, does not exceed 5%, according to Plus Discount estimates.
At present, the number of discount stores stands at about 150, up from 100 at the end of last year.
Moreover, cities that are unaffected by modern retail expansion could be targeted by some proximity store networks.
Analysts say these stores represent a niche both in urban regions and in small towns, which could be exploited by domestic investors. In the opinion of Guy Kuperman, a partner of TASC Strategic Consulting firm, tapping into a niche such as the premium convenience segment is among the solutions domestic FMCG players could opt for in order to remain competitive.
Carrefour, Cora, Real, Auchan and Kaufland international networks have invested around 400m euros over the past year in Romania, to register the fastest expansion for domestic hypermarkets. As a result, between October 2006 and October 2007 retailers opened 31 hypermarkets, compared with 25 between 2001 (when the hypermarket format was first introduced) and last autumn. Whereas Carrefour, Auchan and Cora targeted Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi and Constanta, Real and Kaufland looked towards smaller cities, with less than 120,000 inhabitants.
While the number of hypermarkets doubled domestically and discount stores' presence expanded by 50%, Billa, Spar, Mega Image and Interex international supermarket network opened 20 stores, and reached 66 overall.
Independent supermarket networks Artima and La Fourmi also registered similar expansion rates.
In fact, discount networks surpassed supermarket networks as early as 2006 in terms of locations.
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