Romanian bricolage strikes back

After the French Bresson Group and the German Praktiker Group opened bricolage stores in Bucharest last year, it was time for such stores developed by local groups to open. The Atlassib holding at the end of last year dedicated a bricolage store in Sibiu, Bricomat (3,000 sqm in sales space), following a $2.5 million investment. “We estimate this year’s turnover to reach 2 million euros,” Cristian Cojocaru, Bricomat general manager told Ziarul Financiar. He added the company was planning to open three more such stores in Transilvania over the next two years. The complex takes up 3,600 sqm, 3,000 sqm of which account for the actual sales space, and displays more than 15,000 references from various product ranges. As a comparison, Bricostore, which opened near the Carrefour hypermarket last spring, required approximately 8 million euro investments. It takes up 10,000 sqm and sells 40,000 items. Praktiker invested 6 million euros in a store in close proximity of the Metro Voluntari store. It opened last fall and takes up 6,000 sqm. ZF