Carrefour speeds up expansion pace

Carrefour, the biggest hypermarket network in terms of sales, is to increase the pace of its expansion, with investments worth around 180 million euros. It announced it would double the number of stores by the end of next year. The year 2008 is expected to be the retailer’s most dynamic year on the Romanian market. Next year, the French retailer will open a hypermarket in the Vitan district of Bucharest, located close to the DIY store Praktiker. For the project in Vitan, Carrefour is working with real estate developer Vitantis, which last year sold part of the Vitantis Shopping Center retail park to the British owned company Equest Balkan Properties. Carrefour intends to open more hypermarkets in Bucharest, with a new city centre store to be opened this year on the former location of the Univers’All store. Next year the hypermarket chain could also open a store in the Eastern part of the Capital on Theodor Pallady Boulevard, according to information supplied by the Mediafax agency. The retailer also signed the lease for space in the Colosseum shopping centre, located in Bucharest this year, scheduled to open in 2009.