First step back in modern food retail: SPAR and G'Market close stores

SPAR and G’Market, two of the retailers, which invested massively in expansion in 2007, but slowed down their growth rate in 2008, have announced a reduction in their sales surface areas by closing stores. The development of the two operators could be halted this year, with neither SPAR nor G’Market announcing expansion plans for 2009. SPAR, which closed its Targu-Mures store this month, after it had been operational for around two years, said it had given up its only hypermarket due to a change in strategy on the local market. Therefore, the company remains active only on the supermarket segment, with 20 stores. In turn, representatives of G’Market, the network held by Turkish group Anchor, said the closure of the supermarket in Bacau has to do with diminishing or even eliminating financial losses. “We closed the store in Bacau because it wasn’t profitable,” said Ali Capa, CFO of Anchor Grup in Romania, and a member of the managing board of Gimrom Holding – the company that operates the G’Market network.