Fresh food sends Carrefour sales skyrocketing

What do France, Spain, Italy and Romania have in common? A healthy appetite for fresh food. At least this is what the Carrefour officials have noticed after opening their first hypermarket in Romania.
“The Spanish and the French, just like the Italians, prefer fresh foods, for which they are willing to spend quite large amounts of money. This is a Latin habit, that can also be found in Romania,” says Gilles Venet, financial director of Hyparlo, the French group managing the local branch of Carrefour. According to Venet, the Hungarians, Czechs and Polish are rather interested in frozen foods.
The Romanians’ Latin spirit has enabled Carrefour to post results exceeding all expectations.
“The optimistic scenario pointed to annual turnover of 75 million euros, while the realistic version showed 50 million euros, but the first hypermarket posted sales worth 100 million euros in 2002. Food accounts for about two thirds of the sales recorded by the hypermarket in Chiajna,” Venet added. This share could grow even more for the future Carrefour hypermarkets.
“For our future stores, we will focus even more on fresh products, from vegetables to fruit, cheese, bread and meat. At Orhideea (the second Carrefour hypermarket i.e.), food could come to account for 75% of sales. In fact, fresh foods give the hypermarket a competitive edge over the cash & carry stores,” believes the general manager of Carrefour Romania FranA§ois Oliver.
The French group’s investments on the Romanian market will exceed $100 million, as the third hypermarket will open next spring, in western Bucharest. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro