The major European retailers are operating massive investments in Romania betting on consumers' rising purchasing power. Companies seem to be fighting on two levels: for the best city locations and for the largest flow of loyal customers.

Last year, hypermarkets were the "stars" of food retail. Besides the record expansion pace, with 30 new outlets having been launched, Auchan's entry among the top 10 biggest retailers in terms of sales, a year after it entered the Romanian market, also stands proof of this. However, Auchan is lagging behind Real, Carrefour and Kaufland in terms of expansion.

The development of the commercial segment of the real estate market also paved the way for a rising number of large stores, with most retailers preferring to work with developers rather than tap into real estate on their own.

Hypermarkets in 2007 were among the most dynamic employers on the Romanian market, creating around 10,000 jobs for the units opened during the October 2006-October 2007 period.

International retail groups created the segment of discount stores in Romania, with the first such units launched in 2000. In the past two years, discount networks have stepped up their expansion, doubling their number of stores each year. Thus, in late 2007, German and French discounters reached 156 stores domestically, through 100m-euro cumulated investments.

The rest of modern retail formats, supermarkets and cash & carry stores, were less dynamic in expanding on the market. The most important move on the supermarket segment last year was the acquisition of Artima by Carrefour French company for 55m euros.

2007 was the year when investment funds exited food retail, but the entrance of other funds on this market is not ruled out. An opportunity for them would be to acquire Romanian store networks, bring them to the standards of international