Metro goes past one billion-euro landmark

Metro Cash & Carry Romania, operating the 21 cash & carry stores that the German group owns in Romania, last year went beyond the one billion-euro sales threshold.

“In 2004, we exceeded the one billion-euro landmark, and we have thus exceeded the target we had set at the beginning of the year”, Delia Nica, public relations manager with Metro Cash & Carry Romania, told Ziarul Financiar.

Last year, Metro Cash & Carry Romania officials had advanced 800 million euros as the future turnover target.

Given its one billion-euro turnover, Metro Cash & Carry Romania becomes one of the largest private companies on the Romanian market. Among these, only Sidex and Rompetrol last year logged higher turnovers than Metro Cash & Carry.

Metro Cash & Carry Romania officials chose not to disclose the value of last year”s profit.

“Usually, food products account for about 60-70% of the total sales of Metro Cash & Carry stores”, Nica also said.

Metro at the end of last year reached 21 stores, overshooting the 20-store target originally announced by the general manager of the company, Dusan Wilms, several years ago.

Meanwhile, Metro Cash & Carry Romania also provided support for the opening of the first store in Moldova, and the results derived in Romania have propelled Wilms to the position of regional manager for Eastern and Southeastern Europe.

“No investment plan has been adopted for this year”, Nica said, without estimating the sales growth pace, either.

Analysts estimate, though, that sales will continue to grow this year, as the two stores opened in the second half of last year by Metro Cash & Carry Romania have been operational for only several months.

Metro was the first international trade group to bet on the Romanian market, opening its first cash & carry store in 1996. Investments involved by the opening of Metro stores have so far exceeded 300 million euros.

The higher-than-expected results posted by the cash & carry unit pushed the German group to bring other units to Romania, such as the bricolage division, Praktiker.

Praktiker currently owns seven stores that last year derived turnover worth above 60 million euros, with this value set to double this year following the launch of another three stores.

Other units of the German group, such as the hypermarkets arm, Real, are also likely to enter the Romanian market over the following period, according to market information, to be followed, most likely in the medium term, by the group”s electronics and electrical home appliances unit Media Markt.

ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro