One billion dollars. That is how high the sales of the "new retail types" were in Romania last year, over 50% more than the year before. Moreover, the value might come close to $1.5bn, the top players on the market estimate.
Sales made by supermarkets, hypermarkets and cash & carry stores have come to account for 15-16% of a market estimated to $5 or $6bn a year. Which means one in every seven ROL is spent in one of the new type stores, which were a rara avis merely six or seven years ago.
The data were not supplied by companies. Most of the "foreigners" that come with new store concepts are hardly willing to provide any data on the market, feeling they would be providing the competitors with confidential information. However, any company operating on the Romanian market has to submit a financial statement with the Finance Ministry at the end of every year.
Anyone can therefore learn that the "new retail types" accounted for over $1bn in sales in Romania last year. Subsequently it becomes clearer and clearer that the major "foreigners" in the Romanian retail, those that introduced the supermarket or hypermarket concepts on this market, have placed their bets on a winning card, because the sales volume boom is expected to maintain this year as more players come along and the already existing ones have expanded the number of stores.
French hypermarket Cora is the most recent example in this regard, which decided to open its first store in Romania following the success of another French group, Carrefour. Both the Cora hypermarket in the Granitul area and the second Carrefour recently opened in the Grozavesti area are practically stormed by clients. Three more hypermarkets are slated for opening next year, two of which part of the Carrefour network and located in Bucharest and Brasov and the other one part of Cora network and located in Bucharest.
There might be room for more, though, analysts feel. "Albeit those involved in this process - producers, retailers and consumers, would like to see a sustained development on the part of the retail structure, the low purchasing power of the people in Romania seriously influences this trend," believes Raluca Diaconu, Consumer Scan manager with GfK Romania research institute. GfK Romania data show approximately 50% of the total spending in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are constantly made at hypermarkets, supermarkets, cash & carry stores or discounters.
The most significant new retail type in Romania is the cash & carry segment, the sales of which amount to nearly $750 million.
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