Profi opens another "hard discount" store

Profi Rom Food company, a member of the Belgian food distribution group Louis Delhaize, is planning to create a chain of 100 hard discount stores under the Profi brand in Romania. The third such store was opened last Thursday in Timisoara, in an investment of DM1.5 million.

The company has focused on Timisoara so far, where three Profi stores are currently operating.

“Our plan is to expand the network of Profi stores in Romania. We have opened three stores so far, but we intend to increase their number to one hundred. We will initially focus on the western region of the country, but we will also continue the expansion beyond the Carpathians,” Rino Tizzanini, general manager of Profi Rom Food, said.

The first expansion plans aimed at Oradea, but the business failed following land-related disagreements between the company and the local authorities.

The City Hall asked 125,000-lei/square metre/year for a 3,000 square-metre surface, which was deemed as unacceptable by the company.

Under such circumstances, Profi did not get the land, while the authorities decided to auction it off. Profi investment in Oradea would have amounted at 12.6 billion lei.

Profi stores have a standard structure of 1,000 square metres, which is identical in any country or city. The stores sell mainly foodstuffs (85%) and other necessary non-foodstuffs.

Target customers are people looking for bargains, as this is one of the advantages of hard discount stores: they market a large amount of goods for low prices. The other two Timisoara-based stores that opened last year are visited by 1,500-2,000 customers daily.

Delhaize group, including Profi Rom Food, is operating in eleven countries and its distribution network counts 2,000 points of sale. The Belgian group last year concluded a partnership with Mega Image for the purchase of a 51% stake in the store chain bearing the same name.

All modern types of sale can currently be encountered on the Romanian market: hypermarket, supermarket and cash and carry. Foreign companies are increasingly interested in this field.