Carrefour hits 435m-euro sales, second only to Metro

Carrefour hypermarket network made 435 million-euro sales last year, an increase of more than 64% on the previous year, thus becoming the second leading player on the retail market after German Metro Group, whose sales overshot the 1 billion-euro mark.

The growth in the sales of the main hypermarket chain on the domestic market overlapped with the fast-paced increase in consumption due to the consumer lending boom and to the extra income generated by the introduction of the flat tax.

Still, the economic growth announced for last year was of less than 4.5%, below the initial expectations of the government.Carrefour is currently operating five hypermarkets on the domestic market, the last of which was opened in Ploiesti last autumn.

“The growth in comparable perimeter sales (measured by the four stores in operation in 2004, i.e.), and exchange rate exclusion were put at 47%,” Hyparlo representatives say.

The strong sales growth will maintain over the next few years, company officials say.

“We will open two more stores this year in Baneasa (northern Bucharest) and Constanta, and maintain at least the same pace for the next few years,” says Francois Oliver, Carrefour Romania chief executive. The entrance of the French on the market had occurred, according to their own estimates, at a time when statistics regarding Romanians” buying power would not recommend such an investment.

“Were we to rely on the market surveys, we would never have come to Romania. When we came in Romania in 1999, we mainly relied on instincts,” said Jean Michel Arlaud, general manager of Hyparlo, owner of the Carrefour franchise for Romania.

Carrefour hypermarkets have been present on the Romanian market since 2001, when the first such store opened in Western Bucharest. From that moment onwards, Hyparlo has opened four more stores, in Bucharest, Brasov and Ploiesti, with investments exceeding 140 million euros.

French Carrefour Group announced at the end of last year that it was going to take control of Hyparlo, its biggest franchisee, after having acquired a significant stake in the company earlier in the year.

The only direct competitor of Carrefour on the hypermarket segment is another French group, Cora, which owns two stores in Bucharest, the last of which opened last autumn. Cora estimates to have made 150-170m-euro turnover last year and will open its first hypermarket outside Bucharest, in Cluj, this year.

Also this year, another player on the hypermarket segment, Real, the specialised division of Germany”s Metro Group, could make an entrance on the market, its first store being slated for opening in Timisoara this spring. Construction works will start on the first Auchan hypermarket this year, as well, with the expansion of this particular network to be co-ordinated by Cora”s former boss. The first Auchan store should be located, according to market information, in SE Bucharest, with a new project being prepared for the west of the capital city.

Another German operator, which owns stores that fit the hypermarket description, is Lidl & Schwartz, which opened its first Kaufland in Romania last year.