Turnover up 120% as Carrefour looks beyond Bucharest

The results of the fast-paced expansion on the Romanian market initiated by the French-owned Carrefour are starting to show. The three Carrefour hypermarkets in Bucharest sold more than 100 million euros in goods during the first half of his year.

This is almost 120% more than in the same time last year. The number of stores has gone up from one (based in Chiajna, by the exit out of Bucharest to Ploiesti) to three in the meantime, with a hypermarket opened in Grozavesti, close to the centre of the city and another in Colentina, Eastern Bucharest.

“The growth pace will pick up speed in the second half of the year when a hypermarket is due to open in Brasov, the first such complex located in a city outside the capital. This opening is actually the beginning of a series of projects for the provinces where the potential comes in the form of conglomerates of more than 300,000 people,” said the representatives of Hyparlo, franchisee of the Carrefour Group which runs Carrefour’s Romanian hypermarkets.

Hyparlo and Carrefour each hold 50% of the company that runs the Carrefour hypermarkets in Romania, with both of them including half of the results of operations in this country in their financial statements.

yHyparHypHyparlo’s cut of the sales of the three hypermarkets in Romania, standing at well over 50 million euros, accounts for about 10% of the total sales of Hyparlo, which also operates 12 hypermarkets in France. This is twice as high as last year, when the Romanian business accounted for only 5% of Hyparlo’s total sales.

This share will increase over the next few years, with the French group aiming at a chain of 15 hypermarkets in Romania by 2010, located either in Bucharest or in other cities throughout the country. The next location on Carrefour’s list is Galati, where it will open a hypermarket in 2005.

Carrefour’s hypermarkets in Romania made 128 million euros in turnover last year, a figure which Hyparlo expects to double this year.

2004 will see four Carrefour hypermarkets operational, allowing the French to make a profit for the first time. Hyparlo’s CFO, Gilles Venet, stated that the breakeven point had already been reached last year.

Carrefour’s only competitor on this market at the moment is yet another French Group, Cora, which owns a store in Colentina, Eastern Bucharest. The company was planning to open a second hypermarket in the Lujerului area (Western Bucharest) this autumn, but has put it off until next spring at the earliest.

Whereas Carrefour stores involve a commercial area of 8,000-10,000 sqm and require 25-35 million euro investments, Cora stores’ commercial areas measure 16,000 sqm, and entail investments reaching 50 million euros.

ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro