Metro Group approaches 2bn-euro mark in Romania

German group Metro could surpass the 2 billion-euro sales mark on the Romanian market in 2007, after it launched a second division – Real Hypermarket. At the end of 2006, only two companies in Romania had posted a business in excess of 2 billion euros, Petrom and Lukoil. In 2006, Metro Group ranked seventh among the economy’s largest players. According to the group’ s financial reports, Eastern European sales increased 24.4% last year against 2006 and reached 15.7 billion euros. In 2006, the Romanian market contributed around 12% of Metro Group’s sales in Eastern Europe, but the expansion of the supermarket network by 14 stores, from March 2006 until the end of 2007, significantly increased the share held by the Romanian subsidiaries in the group’s business. Therefore, the sales of the Metro Group on the local market could have exceeded 2 billion euros last year. However, Metro representatives have yet to release data on domestic turnover in 2007. Metro Group’s consolidated business reached 1.51 billion euros in 2006, up over 20% against the previous year. Sales at Real hypermarkets accounted for 5%, after a large number of stores recently opened. Metro has led the way for foreign investors in consumer goods retail in Romania, and brought the Metro Cash & Carry network onto the Romanian market in 1996.