Three years after opening the first hypermarket in Bucharest, French group Hyparlo (which manages the Carrefour chain in Romania) is glad that it chose to ignore statistics and entered the Romanian market, as the company is very likely to make profit this year.
“Our performance on the Romanian market has exceeded the original forecasts. We broke even, as the operating results are almost balanced, whereas the self-financing capacity is positive,” Gilles Venet, chief financial officer of the Hyparlo group told Ziarul Financiar.
According to the Hyparlo official, the company’s sales surged 29% in 2003, with the second Bucharest-based hypermarket having been opened last fall.
“We shall operate four hypermarkets in Romania this year (the third has been recently launched in the western area of Bucharest, while the fourth will open this fall in Brasov i.e.), which will only strengthen our market position,” Venet added.
Under the circumstances, he estimates that Hyparlo will double turnover in Romania this year, which will allow for strongly positive operating results, with the net result close to an equilibrium.
“These are the main trends that we anticipate, considering the performance of our units in Chiajna and Orhideea that have been operating so far,” Venet explained.
Last year, the two Carrefour hypermarkets posted sales worth almost 128 million euros, up 30% from the previous year, when only one hypermarket was functioning.
The Carrefour hypermarkets on the Romanian market are operated by Hiproma, a joint venture between Carrefour and one of its main franchisees, the Hyparlo group, with the shares split fifty-fifty between the two. Hyparlo provides the management for Hiproma.
Beside the two units in Bucharest, the French group also operates another 12 hypermarkets in France. In 2003, the sales logged in Romania accounted for 13% of the results that Hyparlo recorded in France. According to Hyparlo estimates, the Romanian sales will come to account for half of the French results in 2006, only to exceed them in 2010.
Considering the expansion plans disclosed by the officials (two hypermarkets every year), Carrefour will have 15 units operating in Romania by 2010.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro