The most efficient large retailers in Romania are those that have not opened any new stores lately and have a longer presence on the local market, reads the Capital magazine. Cora controls the most profitable stores, a network that preferred not to invest during the crazy years of expansion. Cora, Metro and Selgros lead the profitability ranking of the Romanian retail business, which considers the ten largest store networks by sales surface. An example of efficiency is Cora, which reported a profitability rate of nearly 1,860 lei per square meter and sales worth 37,600 lei/sqm according to the 2008 financial results, thus leading the ranking for both categories. Although it entered the Romanian market back in 2003, the Cora network, controlled by the French-Belgian Louis Delhaize retailer, counts only 3 hypermarkets, with a total surface of 39,000 square meters. The network operator did not open any new stores since 2006, and that is why it reported high rates of profitability. Cora will open a new hypermarket with a sales surface of more than 10,000 sqm this spring, in the Sun Plaza commercial center located in Berceni. Next rated are the cash&carry store networks Metro and Selgros, some of the first retail multinationals that entered the local market. The companies ended the expansion process, so that they could focus more on consolidating their business and reaching better results. Metro, the first foreign retailer that was brave enough to come to Romania in 1996 posted a profitability rate of 1,465 lei/sqm, a figure that applies for the 2006 financial results, the last year for which it has submitted the balance sheet with the Finance Ministry. As regards the sales per square meter, the retailer is rated second, reaching 35,800 lei/sqm in 2008. Over the past four years, the company opened only one store in Romania. The commercial unit was inaugurated in Deva in November 2008 based on an investment of some 20 million euros. The surface of the 24-store network totals 168,000 sqm at present. Selgros, a network controlled by the German Rewe group that entered the Romanian market in 2001, reported a high rate of profitability of 845 lei/sqm. On the other hand, in terms of sales, Selgros posted 18,600 lei/sqm, thus failing to be one of the top five networks. The German retailer currently controls 18 stores, with a total surface of 178,000 square meters, with the last cash&carry unit having been opened in September 2009. The investment in the inauguration of the store located on the Valea Cascadelor street in Bucharest was a record one, of 38 million euros, with a large part thereof having been paid for the land, purchased in the period when real estate prices had boomed. Although Billa posted the slightest increases in modern retail sales over the past years, the supermarket operator of the German Rewe group has reached a rather high profitability rate of 787 lei/sqm, while its sales rate stood at 24,680 lei/sqm. Carrefour Romania also reported the same sales per square meter, but a profitability rate of 481 lei/sqm. The French company operates on the local market both in hypermarkets and supermarkets, following the purchase of the Artima store chain in October 2007. The total surface of the Carrefour 22-hypermarket network covers 142,000 sqm, without taking into consideration the store located in the Armonia center in Braila (eastern Romania), which was closed last summer. The company’s officials maintain their statements that this was just a temporary decision. The supermarket network of the French retailer is, however, much smaller, with the total surface of the 25 Carrefour Express and Carrefour Market covering 23,000 square meters. Despite its sales and profitability rate per square meter being one of the smallest, Kaufland posted a profit of 63 lei/sqm and sales worth 13,150 lei/sqm and the German retailer stands chances of improving its position in the two rankings. Kaufland has been one of the most active retailers since it entered the local market in the fall of 2005. Consequently, the discount retailer set up 45 hypermarkets in 4 years, with a total sales surface of nearly 246,000 sqm, the largest on the Romanian market. Some of the networks that posted losses are Plus, Auchan and Real, retailers that have bet on expansion over the past years. Auchan hypermarkets reported losses worth 377 lei/sqm, the Plus discount stores’ losses amounted to 980 lei/sqm, while Real retailer, part of the German Metro group registered losses worth 1,470 lei/sqm, nearly the equivalent of the profitability reported in Romania by the cash&carry stores of the same group. Source: Agerpres.
