Bricostore: Restrictive lending policies to affect DIY sector

Bricostore: Restrictive lending policies to affect DIY sectorThe DIY market risks slowing down its growth due to the financial crisis and its quite uncertain effects. The very restrictive lending policy will affect the DIY market, says Isabelle Pleska, general manager of the Bricostore Romania DIY chain. Isabelle Pleska said that she still relied on support from banks to finance the development of the network, but believed that increasing costs to raise such resources could have a negative impact on the company’s expansion plans. Bricostore opened two stores on the local market in Arad and Braila, following investments worth 20 million euros in total, and has three more stores planned for opening until the end of 2008. Over the last few years, the retailer, which currently numbers 10 operational stores, wants to maintain an expansion rate of at least 5 stores a year. All the five openings this year will be in rented locations, but Pleska says the company wants to refocus the expansion of the network towards locations owned by Bricostore, which can lead to higher profits. Real estate developers now own most of the network’s locations in Romania.