DIY network Bricostore, which is owned by French group Bresson, is to accelerate its expansion programme as of next year. The company has opened one store per year for the past three years, but now plans to double the pace of expansion starting in 2005.
"We aim to start opening two stores per year as of next year," announced Philippe Breson, chairman of the Bresson group.
After having opened three stores in Bucharest, the French group which was the first to launch a large DIY store in Romania, will also expand outside of the capital.
"We bought land in Brasov back in 1999, near to the Carrefour hypermarket. Besides the Brasov store, we will open another store in Ploiesti, where we recently purchased land also," Bresson added.
In Brasov, Bricostore will be going head-to-head with its main competitor in Romania, Praktiker, which this year opened a store on the other side of the road from the Bricostore location.
Praktiker opened its first store in Romania in the autumn of 2002 and has since expanded rapidly, having now reached six stores. In the case of Praktiker, a local investor provides the money for the land and the construction of the stores, and the German group pays rent for the respective project.
Bricostore currently has three stores, all three of which are located in Bucharest close to the Carrefour and Cora hypermarkets. The average investment involved in a Bricostore location normally ranges between 6 and 8 million euros.
"For our third store, which we will open tomorrow (Tuesday) in the Orhideea area, we have invested 10 million euros because it is located in the centre of the city and we needed to pay more attention to the construction," explained Bresson.
Apart from Bricostore, the two-story commercial complex in the Orhideea area will also include a Media Galaxy store, scheduled for opening on November 20.
"Construction works started six months ago and were carried out entirely by Romanian companies. Of the 17,000 square metres of the building, Bricostore took 10,000 and 5,000 square metres will go to Media Galaxy," said Bresson.
According to Dan Ostahie, chairman of the Altex group, eight million euros have been invested in the new Media Galaxy store.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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