kika could invest 60m euros in Romania in 2011

Lars Lund, the Danish manager running kika store domestically, says the second unit of the company will be in Constanta, where the location has already been finalised, and the third one in Bucharest, with both of them likely to be completed in 2011. “The next store of Bucharest will not be in the central area because we need a space of similar size. At the same time, the area has to be a developed one and we’re currently trying to finalise this. I can only say it’s much closer to the city,” Lars Lund told ZF in an interview. About the Romanian furniture market, worth around 0.9bn euros, kika Romania head states it is slowly picking up. Austria’s kika group could invest over 60m euros in 2011 domestically, when it may finalise the two stores, with the funds coming from its own resources. Should kika plans materialise, the company would be the first large international retailer to operate several stores in Romania, considering IKEA has not announced the location of its next stores, yet.