"Auchan's expansion in Romania will end only when I retire," Regis Mougel, the 45 year-old French CEO of the Auchan hypermarket network in Romania, says jokingly.
Mougel estimates that there will be around 20 Auchan hypermarkets by 2010, after the company invests over 300-320 million euros over the next few years.
The Auchan network currently numbers five units in Romania, which include four hypermarkets throughout the country and one supermarket in Timisoara, with the latter to close when a hypermarket opens in the same location later this year.
According to company data, Auchan Romania registered 8 million customers last year and sold over 150 million products.
With 130,000 visitors each week, the store in the Titan district of Bucharest (the first launched by Auchan on the local market) remained the retailer's most popular store. Overall, the five stores attract 300,000 customers each week, company data reveals.
Mougel won a court case against market rival Cora Romania, after he was removed as general manager in 2004. He is now focussed on Auchan network expansion and intends to leave the network's main competitor even further behind. In 2008, the French manager plans to open four new Auchan stores on the local market, while Cora has announced the launch of just one new store, in Sun Plaza shopping centre, Bucharest. Last year, Auchan outranked Cora in terms of domestic expansion, after it opened its fourth hypermarket, whilst its competitor opened just three.
"In 2008, we will launch two stores in Bucharest and one in Suceava and Timisoara respectively," specified Mougel. Auchan's investments in expansion could amount to 80-100 million euros this year, a portion of which will be covered through credits from BRD and Raiffeisen banks.
Mougel adds that this year the company intends to double its number of employees to aroun
