Mobilia Company, a Romanian-Canadian-owned company based in Bucharest, will invest 85 million euros over the next five years to open seventeen furniture shopping centres throughout the country.

Mobilia Company will build seven of the 17 stores scheduled to open within the retail parks developed by the BelRom company, controlled by Belgian investors. The first mall will be opened this June in Sibiu, within the European Retail Park shopping centre developed by BelRom. The Sibiu-based Mobilia Mall will take up 6,100 square metres and will entail an investment worth 5 million euros.

In comparison, the largest outlet of Elvila, one of the main players on the domestic furniture market, is located in Bucharest, and takes up 10,000 square metres. Other large outlets managed by Elvila are located in Constanta (7,000 square metres), Iasi (6,000 square metres) and Ploiesti (5,000 square metres). The outlets operated by the smaller retailers take up approximately 1,000 square metres. The biggest Neoset outlet, for instance, covers a surface area of over 400 square metres. "We chose to invest in Sibiu because the city has a fantastic growth potential and is very promising on long term. There is a high demand for furniture in Sibiu and we thought it was natural for us to start such an investment here," said Daniela Sandu, chief operating officer of Mobilia Company for Sibiu.

The Mobilia Malls will comprise between 15 and 20 furniture manufacturers. "When we chose the suppliers, we targeted the average-income clients," says Razvan Paraschiv, partner in Mobilia Company.

The company will develop almost half of the shopping centres in the locations where BelRom will build retail parks. The shopping centre European Retail Park in Sibiu, developed by BelRom was acquired by the British investment fund North Real Estate Opportunities (NRE), through a transactio