Unirea in the black

CDMAI Unirea, the company that owns the Unirea store in downtown Bucharest has managed to make 636 million ROL net profit in the first half, compared with the over 6bn ROL net loss in the same time last year. The turnover went up 10% in nominal terms in the first six months, below the inflationary rate. The store maintained its policy of focusing on renting the commercial space held and on reducing the weight of retail in its operations. The retail-related revenues therefore kept going down and came to account for 20% of the turnover in the first half instead of the 36% in H1, 2002. Unirea has been undergoing a change in the business concept since 2000 set to turn it from a department store into a mall-type store, which provides entertainment facilities besides the possibility to shop. ZF