Plus aims for 400m-euro sales

The discounter chain Plus, part of Germany”s Tengelmann Group, is planning to make sales of 400 million euros over the next five years, said Michael Huerter, Plus Europa CEO. “The average basket (average value of purchases per customer) at a Plus store is some 12-15 euros in Germany. We estimate this value at 6 or 7 euros in Romania. On the other hand, the stores in Romania are somewhat larger in terms of surface area and will see much higher traffic, maybe even double that in Germany,” Huerter explained. Huerter believes that while stores in Germany each turn over 3.5 million euros a year on average, a store in Romania will have annual sales of 2.5-3 million euro sales. “We will have 30 stores opened by the close of the fiscal year ending April 30 next year, which will give us a very good position on the market, although we were not the first player to enter this segment in Romania,” Huerter said. ZF