Carrefour close to 300m euros in nine months

The four Carrefour hypermarkets in Romania made a combined 293 million euros in sales in the first nine months of this year, an increase of nearly 80% on the same time in 2004. “The growth in Romania is continuing at a steady pace, with sales in the third quarter witnessing a 47% growth (calculated in RON and excluding inflation),” the report published by French Hyparlo Group, the operator of Carrefour in Romania, reads. Hyparlo now has four hypermarkets on the domestic market, in Bucharest (3 stores) and in Brasov (1). Its total investments to date have exceeded 140 million euros. The latest Carrefour will open this week in Ploiesti, following an investment of close to 25 million euros. The two other hypermarkets now being built – one in the Baneasa area of Bucharest, the other in Constanta – are scheduled to open next year, Hyparlo officials say. The French company”s target for the Romanian market is initially to cover the main cities of the country, and then to focus on medium-sized cities of upwards of 100,000 inhabitants. Carrefour could be running between 20 and 25 hypermarkets in Romania in the long term. The only direct competitor to Carrefour on the hypermarket segment is the other French group, Cora, which has two such stores in Bucharest, the newest of which having just opened at the end of September. ZF