The two Carrefour hypermarkets opened on the Romanian market last year allowed the French to double their sales compared with 2003, as announced early last year. The results, however, are not good enough for the company to make net profit.
“The business in Romania will generate operating income in 2004, and this is the first time (since 2001 onwards i.e.) when this happens. On the other hand, financial costs entailed by development and the interest rates in Romania (the company decided to borrow in local currency), are pressuring the results, which means the net figures for 2004 will show losses again,” Gilles Venet, the financial manager of the Hyparlo Group, one of the biggest independent franchisees of Carrefour, and developer of the Carrefour chain in Romania, told Ziarul Financiar.
The two hypermarkets opened last year allowed Carrefour to double its revenues in Romania, with the turnover increasing from nearly 128 million euros in 2003 to over 264 million euros in 2004, the company data show.
“We will go public with our 2005 estimates at the end of March, once we reveal the 2004 results. At any rate, the growth pace will be clearly lower this year, given that three of the four (stores Carrefour operates at the moment i.e.) will post comparable results and we won’t open the hypermarket in Ploiesti until the end of the year,” Venet explains.
The French opened two more Carrefours in Romania last year, one of which located in Colentina, Bucharest (spring) and the other one in Brasov (autumn), practically doubling the number of stores.
“Last year’s results are in line with our expectations. The last quarter of the year meant a very good performance for the stores in Bucharest and the one in Brasov. We therefore decided to continue our development strategy for the rest of the country by opening a new hypermarket in Ploiesti,” Venet added.
The expansion list includes cities like Galati, where Carrefour will develop a hypermarket as part of a public-private partnership with the local authorities, as well as other cities. Bucharest is not ruled out, either, as the French group estimates it has the southern and northern areas of the Capital left to “cover”. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro