Sale of La Fourmi marks exit of funds from food retail

On a market of almost 3 million consumers, where land prices may amount to as much as 2,000 euros per square metre and rents for supermarket space exceed 25-euros/square metre, the sale of La Fourmi leaves few options for quick expansion of international supermarket chains. The takeover of La Fourmi supermarkets takes the Delhaize group closer to its target for the market in Bucharest, 50 Mega Image stores by 2011. Its expansion goal in the capital city would have been almost impossible to attain without takeovers of existing stores, with Mega Image expanding by 4 or 5 greenfield stores every year. The only fast-paced expansion was that of Profi discount stores, part of the Louis Delhaize group, again achieved through an acquisition. Profi entered Bucharest last year when it bought the nine Albinuta discount stores from Lithuanian retailer VP Market for 7.5 million euros. Now that La Fourmi has been sold, the only takeover targets left for international retailers on the Bucharest market are the small supermarket chains developed either by Romanian investors (Ethos and Primavara) or by companies whose main focus is not food retail such as Anchor Grup (G’Market). Billa, the largest supermarket chain in Romania only operates 5 stores in Bucharest but does not rule out potential acquisitions to speed up local expansion. Carrefour is also keeping an eye on the market looking for opportunities to expand fast, but its CEO says that the expansion of the Carrefour Express supermarkets will not become a priority sooner than next year.