Organic growth of retail chains, below 11%

Metro Cash & Carry, Selgros Cash & Carry and Carrefour, the largest retail networks on the local market in terms of value of sales, are reporting sales increase rates (excluding network expansion) of 4 to 11%. In Germany, the stagnating sales of the Selgros Cash & Carry network in 2007 compared with the previous year, amid a declining market, was offset by the turnover growth abroad, in particular in Romania, in 2007 against 2006, where the network opened three stores. Last year, the company’s organic growth on the Romanian market stood at 4.1% against 2006, according to the same source. Carrefour, in turn, reported a “solid” organic growth in the first quarter of the year on the Romanian market, of 9.8%, against the same period of 2007. In Q1, Carrefour hypermarkets in France reported a mere 0.7% like-for-like increase. German group Metro also believes foreign markets are the growth drivers of the business. In the first quarter of the year, the like-for-like advance in the sales of Metro Cash & Carry on Eastern European markets stood at 10.6%, much higher than the organic growth rate recorded in Western European countries (excluding Germany), of 0.8%, according to the group’s financial report. On the Romanian market, Metro Cash & Carry posted turnover worth 1.59 billion euros, up 11.3% against 2006, amid the same number of stores.