Auchan starts with hypermarkets in Romania

Regis Mougel, general manager of Auchan Romania, the newest player on the domestic retail market, says that the hypermarket sector is set for further development because, unlike the supermarket sector, the hypermarket segment has not been yet been fully covered. French retailer Auchan will develop its own domestic network at a pace of two outlets per year. Expansion will be more aggressive in the first two years. The French will expand out of the capital city next year and plan to open hypermarkets in Cluj-Napoca, Targu Mures and Pitesti. Each outlet requires on average 40 million euros in investment. Auchan opened its first hypermarket in Romania in the Titan district in Bucharest yesterday and will open its second outlet in the city in a Berceni-based mall next year. “Hypermarkets are better suited to the local market. Romania is a country with a large population, and the hypermarket segment is less developed than the supermarket segment, which already boasts many international companies,” says Regis Mougel. Mougel uses the French market as an example, where Auchan currently has 120 hypermarkets, servicing 60 million people, in order to highlight the potential of the domestic market. However, Romania is still behind France when it comes to the consumer purchase power, which made the French apply a low-price policy. “We will have an overall discount policy we usually apply in countries where the market has not yet matured, such as Russia and Romania,” Regis Mougel explains.