kika likely to hire as many as 400 people next year

Austrian furniture retailer kika, which operates a store in the western part of Bucharest, and which posted 16m-euro sales last year, is likely to invest more than 60m euros next year to open two stores in Constanta and Bucharest. “The two stores may be opened in 2011. The first to be opened will be that in Constanta. Investments per store will revolve around 30-35m euros, with the funds coming from our own resources,” Lars Lund, country manager of kika Romania told ZF in an interview. Lund, 42, came at the helm of the store in December 2009 and previously worked in kika’s franchise network starting 2006. For the opening of the first kika store, the company hired as many as 200 people, a figure that may be retained in the case of the next stores. Kika store in 2009, the first operational year on the domestic market, generated turnover worth around 16m euros, and for 2010 budgeted growth. About these results, Lund said, “for the situation we are in and for the results that we have, the store is faring well, but we want better results”.