Most of the international retailers have entered the Romanian market via Bucharest. Now that things have started to calm down in the Capital, as it became quite full of stores, the first commercial agglomeration in the provinces is dawning in Brasov.
Those driving from Bucharest to Brasov can see extensive construction works in progress on both sides of the road. The showrooms of some of the most important car brands in Romania, furniture stores, cash & carry stores, hypermarkets, bricolage stores, fast-food restaurants, gas stations, all of them are standing side by side and are currently in various stages of completion.
The explanation for this is simple, as the stores by the city entrance equally target the well over 300,000 inhabitants of Brasov and the tourists in Poiana Brasov or in the towns on the Prahova Valley, located only half an hour drive away.
"We've had a store running in this area for four years now. We wanted to open a store in Brasov and took it up with the people at the City Hall, who told us the entrance to Brasov coming from Bucharest would be wholly dedicated to services. This is when we made the decision to invest. Other companies have opened businesses in this area in the meantime, and the price of the land has risen," says Dan Viorel Sucu, chairman of furniture producer and retailer Mobexpert.
The first "foreigner" to have set foot in the area was German Rewe Group, which, unlike its competitor, Metro, yet another German group, chose Brasov to enter Romania.
"When we set the location for the complex in Brasov, we had no certain data, but thought the area in question would develop into a service and retail zone, because it showed a lot of promise in this regard back then," says Pia Krauss, Selgros Cash & Carry SRL marketing manager. She explained that the choice to base the Romanian headquarters in a city other than Bucharest was also made because Brasov is the heart of Romania and an ideal place for planning the expansion to the rest of the country. "Moreover, we found staff in Brasov that had a good command of the German language. The results of the store in Brasov are much better than our expectations and plans," Krauss adds.
The first Selgros store was opened in the first half of 2001 and involved a 16.5 million euro investment. The Germans have opened three more such stores in Bucharest and one in Targu Mures in the meantime.
French Carrefour Group in its turn will open its first hypermarket in the provinces this year, set to be located in the commercial agglomeration developing by the entrance to Brasov.
"We bought a plot of land in a very good location by the entrance to Brasov several years ago. Now that we reached three hypermarkets in Bucharest, we decided it was time to open such a store in the provinces, as well, and Brasov was the most suitable place for it, considering the very good location we had and the fact that it is one of the major cities of the country," says Francois Oliver, general manager of Hiproma, the company that operates the Carrefour hypermarket network in Romania. The investment in this project is worth 25 million euros.
Praktiker, Metro's bricolage division, is yet another retailer very close to opening a store by the entrance to Brasov, which is scheduled to happen this spring. French Besson Group, the direct competitor of the Germans at Praktiker will be opening its first Bricostore in this area, as well.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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