Mega Image operator bets on expansion outside Bucharest with Red Market

Delhaize le Lion, the owner of Mega Image, Bucharest’s biggest supermarket chain, this year marks the third city on its expansion list, Brașov, where it will operate two Red Market stores by the end of September. Moreover, the retailer is taking Red Market to Târgoviște as well in September, according to company data. The openings come in the wake of investments put at 3m euros in the expansion of the discounter network in Constanța and in several localities around Bucharest, in parallel with expansion in Bucharest, where five stores have been added since early 2010. “Being a discount retail concept, Red Market is better suited to the market of cities outside Bucharest. As for Bucharest, we’re trying to cover it with Mega Image network,” stated Raluca Pavel, marketing manager with Mega Image. Delhaize in late 2009 held an estimated 20-30% share of the Bucharest supermarket segment, with 45 Mega Image stores. In December, when it opened the first Red Market store of Romania, the Belgian company announced plans to drive the network to 200 stores in several years, without specifying targeted cities.