This year's slump in the electrical home appliances market has found its first victim. Amadeus has closed more than half of its Bucharest stores, with a decision on the remaining stores to be made at the start of next year.
"The electrical home appliances market has seen a steep decline this year. Some of the spaces that were rented no longer justified their existence. When a store that took in a certain amount of investment brings in profits lower than the profit you would make from a bank account, the decision to close comes only naturally," Laurentiu Postovaru, the majority stakeholder in Amadeus Group SRL, told Ziarul Financiar.
Of the eight stores that last year generated a turnover of over ten million euros and net profits of more than 600,000 euros, only half are still operational today.
Current Amadeus stores are for the most part owned by the company.
"December is a good month for sales of electrical home appliances. However, a decision as to the remaining stores will be made next February at the latest," added Postovaru. Postovaru didn't rule out the possibility of redirecting the investment in the Amadeus network to other businesses in areas such as real estate or even production.
The move by Amadeus confirms concerns circulating on the electronics and electrical home appliances market in the first half of this year in respect of the impact of the stricter lending norms imposed by the National Bank of Romania.
In the first months of the year, consumer loans, the main engine behind last year's explosive growth of the electronics and home appliances market, declined dramatically.
Massive investment in advertising and increasingly aggressive promotional offers on the market have managed to curb the decline and sales have returned to levels close to those of last year.
According to most players on the market, sales of traditional electrical home appliances, such as refrigerators, cookers and other "white goods", will be 10-15% lower for this year.
This situation has harmed almost all networks on the market, since home appliances are a major part of their activity, sometimes as much as 40 or 50%.
Despite the problems faced by the overall market, a number of stores and networks have managed to reach levels similar to last year's by focusing on IT&C products, which last year accounted for 5-10% of total sales.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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