Investment fund Enterprise Investors, which last year took
over Profi food retail chain, wants to expand it by at least 10 new
stores in 2010 and is leaning towards the convenience supermarket
concept rather than the discount store concept.
Profi’s expansion will create 300 jobs this year, with
investments in these projects put at over 10 million euros.
Profi, which posted around 140 million euros in sales last
year, is the third largest food retailer on the discount store
market, after Penny Market and Plus. Plans of the chain’s new
shareholder, however, target changes in Profi’s retail concept, and
a focus on the segment of convenience stores, currently dominated
by small Romanian merchants.
“We are edging closer to the supermarket segment and will rely less on private labels, in order to move away from the discount store concept. In the coming period we will expand the area dedicated to fresh products in our stores, and do not rule out a rebranding of the chain,” said Gunter Grieb, chief executive of the Profi chain.