Two more stores for Profi

The Profi store chain held by French-Belgian group Louis Delhaize will open stores in Satu Mare and Resita over the next two months. The two stores add up to the one already announced in Petrosani for this month and are part of the strategy the company officials announced for this year, which entails opening five stores in a four million-euro investment. Profi is the first international chain of discounters to enter the Romanian market. Profi has focused on the Western area of Romania and has been increasing the number of stores every year up to 20, most which located in west of the country. French-Belgian group Louis Delhaize is also present in Romania with another division, the Cora hypermarkets. The first such hypermarket opened in Bucharest in the autumn of 2003, with a second underway in the capital, for this autumn. The investments made by Profi thus far are estimated at 20 million euros, while the first Cora entailed 50 million euros in investments. Profi Rom Food, the company that operates the Profi chain estimates turnover to reach 45 million euros this year, an increase of nearly 30% on 2004. ZF