Carrefour grows to 35 hectares, invests in retail-park and entertainment

The first hypermarket in Romania, which was opened last year by French group Carrefour, the European distribution leader, under an investment worth 35 million euros, will turn into a commercial complex over the next two years, which will push the investment up to 80 million euros. The complex will spread on 35 hectares.
“The most important component will be the retail-park, to be opened in 2004, which will spread on 12 hectares and will be divided into several sections. There will be stores selling clothes, footwear and accessories, but also electronics, household devices, furniture, and even auto showrooms. There will be a clearly outlined entertainment area, which will host restaurants, a multiplex cinema and an amusement park,” said Francois Oliver, general manager of Carrefour Romania.
According to analysts, this trend is perfectly natural.
“Romania will follow the European trends, because this commercial density meets the requirements of modern man, who does not have much time and prefers to find everything he needs in a single location; for that, he is willing to travel some extra miles,” says Anca Ioan, Associate Partner with Roland Berger consultancy.
The first step will be next year’s opening of the furniture store owned by Mobexpert group, which will span on 7,000 sq. metres. “Also next year, we will open a Buffalo Grill restaurant, specialised in meat products, with the Wild West as the central theme,” Oliver says. The French group has 500 restaurants operating across Europe. “The hypermarket will expand next year, from its current 8,000 sq. metres to 10,000 square metres,” the Carrefour official added.
The French group aims to open five hypermarkets in Bucharest by 2005, according to Oliver. “We already have one hypermarket in the western area of the city and are building another one downtown, so that we still have to cover the northern, southern and eastern areas of Bucharest.” Cora, another French group specialised in big-size trade will open a hypermarket in eastern Bucharest.
After Bucharest, Carrefour will go for those cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants. “Besides Brasov, where we have already bought a piece of land, we will also open a hypermarket in Constanta and will come to hold 15 units by 2010,” Oliver states.
The Carrefour hypermarket, which opened for business at the end of last June, attained turnover in excess of 43 million euros in its six months of operations in 2001, with losses close to five million euros.
“Sales were twice bigger than six-month estimates last year. However, we expect to be in the black only after the opening of the third hypermarket, most likely in 2004,” Oliver adds.