Carrefour will open its second hypermarket in Bucharest in the Orhideelor area next week. One week later another French group will in its turn open its first hypermarket in Bucharest, this time in the Colentina area. Total investments in the two hypermarkets will exceed 75 million euros.
The Orhideea shopping complex set to open next week includes the second hypermarket of French Carrefour Group in Romania. The officials say the investment should be worth some 25 million euros.
The investment in the new shopping complex comes from the French constructions group Vinci Construction Grand Projects through its Romanian branch – Soconac, which scouted out the location, conducted the feasibility studies and handled the actual construction works, while Carrefour is the main partner in this project.
The complex takes up 30,000 square metres, 17,000 square metres of which account for the Carrefour hypermarket itself. The actual commercial space available within the new Carrefour will be 9,000 square metres, while the remaining 8,000 square metres will go to about 60 stores selling home appliances, apparel, textiles etc and to restaurants, with all the space already committed through leases. There will also be a 1,400 spot car park.
The hypermarket in the Orhideea complex is the second project of Carrefour in Romania after the one dedicated in the Chiajna commune in June 2001, following a total investment in excess of $50 million. The hypermarket’s turnover was worth more than 100 million euros last year and went up 10% in the first half of 2003.
The French company in April started construction works on its third commercial complex in Bucharest, this time located in Colentina, which will entail an approximately 35 million euro investment.
Carrefour plans to open 24 or 25 hypermarkets in Romania in the long run.
The first Cora hypermarket will be located in the Granitului-Pantelimon area and entail 50 million euro investments. Its first year in business should see the hypermarket generate over 100 million euros in sales.
Cora will open its second Romanian hypermarket in the Lujerul area next fall, following an investment estimated to 50 million euros.
The company officials say the French group plans to open 14 Cora hypermarkets in Romania by 2010, all of which located in cities with a population above 300,000.
It will begin by opening 3 or 4 such stores in Bucharest and then move on to the provinces.
Cora Miorita, that is the second hypermarket, will be built on a “strategic” location sandwiched between two Carrefours, i.e. the one in Chiajna (Bucharest’s exit to Pitesti) and the one in Orhideea.
Cora is part of the Louis Delhaize Group, a family business that started more than 100 years ago. Cora currently holds 59 hypermarkets in France and 27 throughout the rest of the world in countries like Belgium, Hungary, the Reunion Island, the Antilles, Vietnam, Mayotte and Madagascar. Cora’s annual turnover reaches about 4.8bn euros. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro