Leder & Schuh, the biggest Austrian footwear retailer and numbered among Europe's top six retailers, announced it would arrive on the Romanian market next year. The footwear company plans to gain a position among the top three footwear retailers on the Romanian market.
"On any market we enter, we want to gain a position within the top three footwear retailers in the respective country. Of course, we must take into account the overall economic situation, competition and the availability of necessary retail space," Gerald Zimmermann, Leder & Schuh managing director for the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, told ZF. Zimmermann will also be in charge of the new Romanian operations, starting next year.
"The first store will be opened in Bucharest next year," he added, without specifying the value of any of the investments. Zimmermann did not provide any information regarding how many stores Leder & Schuh planned to open in Romania, or the exact location of the first of them.
The planned stores will be called Humanic, and will feature a multi-brand concept, with each store having an area of at least 500 square metres.
In terms of size, the Humanic stores will compete with the domestic retailer Leonardo, which owns stores covering 200-1,000 square metres. The Austrians' concept involves the same product mix as its new rival, with products for men, women and children, ranging from fashion to sports footwear.
Last year saw Leder & Schuh generate a consolidated turnover of 406.3m euros, up 9% on 2005.
Leder & Schuh does not own any production facilities, but in total operates 300 stores, which are held under various different brands, such as Corti, Dominici, Top Schuh, Shoe 4 You and Jello.
Domestically, the company will be in competition with retailers such as Leonardo, Benvenuti, Otter, Musette or Vicina, all of which hold quite strong positions.
According to Zimmermann, at the moment "the Romanian market is very interesting, especially on the fashion segment". He anticipates that sums spent on luxury goods will see a considerable growth as the living standards improve.
The Austrian company voiced its intention to enter the domestic market at a time when most clothes and footwear retailers already operating on the Eastern European markets also revealed their plans to enter the Romanian market. In response, domestic retailers also have ambitious expansion plans scheduled for 2007 and 2008.
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