Praktiker, a thorn in Bricostore's side

Praktiker is set to open its second bricolage store in Bucharest in the outer Militari neighbourhood, where a shopping centre is to be built by Belgium-based developer Liebrecht & Wood.
The Germans at Praktiker are therefore throwing down the gauntlet to the their rivals at Bresson, the French company that opened the Bricostore shop within the Carrefour complex last year.
The new Praktiker will be just a few kilometres away from Bricostore.
Liebrecht & Wood will begin the construction of the Militari Shopping Center this summer. The complex will require about 43 million euros in investments and take up 73.000 sqm.
It will have about 2,000 parking spots and will be built on a 22 ha piece of land, Ruxandra Cleciu, managing director of the Neocasa real estate company, sole broker of the project, told Ziarul Financiar.
“At first, construction will take up 26,000 sqm, 7,500 sqm of which will be rented by the Praktiker store chain (which may rent up to 9,500 sqm). The contract is valid for 15 years, with the opening scheduled for the fall of 2003,” Ruxandra Cleciu said.
Praktiker is the bricolage (home improvement materials) division of the Germany-based Metro Group, but company officials say the Romanian operations of the two are independent. The first Praktiker opened for business at the end of September last year, following a six million-euro investment. The piece of land on which it was built belongs to Mega-Construct Company held by businessman Dan Adamescu, who also owns Unirea Shopping Centre and Astra insurance company.
Mega Construct also handled the construction of the Voluntari-based store, with the finishing and furnishing taken care of by Praktiker.