Dinu Patriciu’s over 200 million-euro bet on the segment of traditional stores, which accounts for half of the Romanian food retail, is a declaration of war to foreign retailers, after two years during which the crisis has done away with the big businesses held by Romanian entrepreneurs in the sector.
With the launch of the first Mic.Ro shop on wheels, the Romanian
billionaire has announced investments of over 200 million euros in
developing the biggest business in traditional retail.
His plan is to develop a chain of 1,000 Mic.Ro kiosks and of 2,000
shops on wheels over the next two years and to expand the MiniMax
chain he has taken over to 150 stores after they are turned into
traditional stores.
“The business adventure we are embarking on aims to annihilate
modern retail, which does nothing but destroy the urban fabric. We
want people to go to hypermarkets less often, once a month at the
most, and go to the stores around the corner of their block of
apartments in their slippers,” Dinu Patriciu said.
He added that he developed the Mic.Ro concept with Mercadia
executives down to the very last detail, and was not inspired by
the business model developed by the big European retail
groups.
Moreover, he criticised foreign retailers, saying they impose a
retail format incompatible with local realities on the market.