Kaufland Romania's top man steps down

Gunter Grieb (photo), the German who has been in charge of Kaufland Romania’s operations since the network’s entry onto the domestic market in 2005, has left the company at the beginning of the week. Grieb, 38, joined Kaufland in 2002 and headed the expansion of the store network to 27 outlets in less than two years. When contacted by ZF, Grieb refused to comment on his departure. “I have not yet decided whether I will stay in Romania or whether I will return to Germany,” he said. Before joining the Kaufland team, from 1996, Grieb had run the Romanian operations of the German petroleum group Aral. After Aral was taken over by British Petroleum in an international deal, the manager was appointed to oversee the integration of Eastern European operations at BP. The new general manager of the discount hypermarket network is Adrian Viman – the company representatives say, who was officially appointed. Kaufland did not wish, however, to offer any details regarding the background of the new general manager. Kaufland has been one of the most dynamic retail networks on the market, opening 14 stores in 12 months. The company’s plans include expanding the domestic network to 50 stores within the next three years. Yesterday, Kaufland opened its 27th network store, and its second in Iasi, following an approximately 8 million-euro investment. The retailer has thus reached total investments worth 330 million euros in Romania and intends to open around five more stores by the end of the year, via average investments worth 7 million euros per store, with each store offering a 3,000-5,000 square-metre sales area.