Philippe Hauville, the Frenchman coordinating the project for the launch of Leroy Merlin store network domestically, says Romania is the most competitive new country for the company and that he relies on direct contact with potential clients to set the tackling strategy for 2011.
The French retailer, ranking second on the European market,
after UK’s Kingfisher and ahead of Praktiker, has already recruited
around 30 people in Romania and opened its offices several hundred
metres away from Colosseum retail park of Bucharest, where it will
open a store in the first half of 2011.
Leroy Merlin is the seventh international DIY network entering the
Romanian market in eight years.
Leroy Merlin head reckons there will be tight competition on the
market. “This is the first time we’re entering a market with such
high competition, so that the approach will be different from the
rest of the countries (…),” states Philippe Hauville, general
manager of Leroy Merlin Romania.
The French apply domestically the same research strategy they have
tried in the rest of the countries they entered: direct contact
with potential clients.