Carrefour: Romania is growing too fast to fall prey to international crisis

“International crisis is a phrase used far too often; we have to concentrate on what we can do to develop the local economy. Romania is still a market with a high growth rate, in an unfavourable foreign context, I don’t think we should expect a catastrophe on the local market,” says Jacobo Caller Celestino, general manager of Carrefour Romania. He adds he has not identified any symptoms that indicate a slowdown in the growth rate of retail in the first month of this year. French retailer Carrefour, the leader of the hypermarket segment, and one of the top three players in Romanian food retail, will register its highest growth rate in 2008 since its entry onto the market, and plans to open at least 6 million new hypermarkets, with overall investments worth 100-200 million euros. “What is happening with the infrastructure? Is Romania capable of absorbing European funds? These are key questions for the local economy in my opinion,” adds the manager, who also voiced concern over salary increases on the Romanian market. “In Romania, salaries are rising too fast. If they rise at the same rate as last year, they will cause uncontrollable inflation, because ultimately it is the consumers who will pay for the salary increases, which are not sustained by similar increases in productivity,” added Caller. Carrefour Romania’s CEO has two priorities this year: expanding the hypermarket network and remodelling the Artima supermarkets in order for them to be rebranded as Carrefour stores, whilst expansion onto the supermarket segment is on the retailer’s priority list for 2009.