Metro''s hypermarkets arrive in Timisoara

Real, the hypermarket division of the German Metro Group will enter the Romanian market next year, with the first store to be opened in Timisoara, according to information on the market. The company through which the Germans will operate in Romania, Real Hypermarket Romania, increased its capital by nearly 3.5 million euros in August, the National Trade Registry Office data show. Real”s officials, whose Romanian offices currently take up two levels in the Sky Gate Hotel in Otopeni, did not care to comment. It is however expected that the hypermarket in Timisoara, currently under construction and scheduled to open next spring, will be shortly followed by others, considering the aggressive development strategy that can be inferred from the fact that Dusan Wilms, former general manager of Metro Cash & Carry Romania, is in charge of Real”s expansion outside Germany. The German group has, after all, secured other locations in major cities across the country, according to the latest information on the real estate market. The Romanian retail market sees two competitors active on the hypermarket segment at the moment, both of them from France. These are namely Hyparlo, the main franchisee of the Carrefour Group, and Cora, part of the Louis Delhaize Group. ZF