Selgros to open two more stores

Selgros, the cash & carry unit of the German trading group Rewe, will open another two stores in Romania this year, under investments estimated to amount to 30 million euros.

“The first store will be opened this spring in Constanta, but I cannot disclose further details about the second,” Pia Kraus, marketing director of the company, said. According to Kraus, Selgros saw higher sales in Romania last year by opening its fifth store in the southern area of Bucharest.

“We expect sales to do very well this year as compared with 2003,” Kraus also said. However, the Selgros official declined to estimate the growth pace of the company’s sales this year.

Selgros is currently controlling five stores, among which three are based in Bucharest, one in Brasov and another one in Targu Mures. The average investment to open a Selgros store usually amounts to 15 million euros. The final goal of the Selgros expansion in Romania is to open 15 stores, whereas the group’s officials have announced a pace of 2-3 stores per year for the following period. Selgros officials say Bucharest needs one more cash & carry store to be fully covered.

Romania also has another cash & carry network, held by a German group, as well. Metro controls 19 stores and reported sales worth 760 million euros last year.

Selgros Cash & Carry Romania is controlled by Fegro / Selgros Germany, the second-largest cash & carry group in Germany, which operates 37 stores. The two associates of the group are Rewe Zentral AG KA¶ln and Otto Versand Hamburg and both hold equal stakes. Rewe Zentral AG KA¶ln posted turnover of 37.5 billion euros in 2001, while Otto Versand Hamburg reported 23.5 billion euros.