Exclusive    Francois Melchior de Polignac, Carrefour: We make business in Romania, with Romania

2012-06-27 10:42:46

Represented locally with 85 retail units opened so far  in different formats, (see Casette 1 for detailed opening evolution), Carrefour Romania is seen locally as one of the co-founder of local modern retail and the first to have opened a hypermarket in Romania, back in 2011. With a countrywide reach of 25 hypermarkets opened locally so far, it seems that the expansion for such formats has slowed down in the last two years. If we can talk about a certain saturation of the market, the company’s GM, Francois Melchior de Polignac detailed for The Diplomat-Bucharest. “There are still nice days for hypermarkets in Romania, as the market is delivering high potential for us. We can’t say that we focus on a certain retail format, as the market provides opportunities for a balanced mixed, either they are hypermarkets, supermarket or smaller shops”.  It is true though that, within a landscape where retailers spread and implemented locally  retail formats in order to reach as close as they can to the Romanian consumer, Carrefour adjusted to the current context and look into different businesses in order to deliver the expected revenues and operations locally.
Regarding the company’s business figures, according to the company’s overall report, in Europe, sales of the group decreased of 2.7 percent, with continued weak non‐food spending and further deterioration in Greece. In Romania, the company’s group figures reveal that total sales increased by 6.6 percent in Q1 of 2012 on a constant currency basis. In Q1 of 2012, Carrefour Romania stated EUR 277 million worth sales locally, a similar performance as registered in Turkey, in European countries.

Read more on the company’s vision on the current trends on the retail market, in the next issue  of The Diplomat-Bucharest.