Billa network, the biggest player on the domestic supermarket market, plans to step up expansion next year, after having reached the highest number of store openings in one year since entering Romania at the end of 2009.
"Year 2010 will see stepped-up expansion on the Romanian market, as we're due to double the average growth pace of recent years," Billa representatives stated.
In the past three years, the retailer has opened 22 new stores, with the average annual expansion pace standing at seven. A doubled-up pace would mean 14 new stores added to Billa network.
The company this year opened four supermarkets, in Sibiu, Bacau, Petrosani and Falticeni (Suceava) and announced another 6 expansion projects were scheduled to be finished by 2010.
The retailer's representatives chose not to specify the value of investments in the new stores, but they could be estimated at 10-20 million euros for the entire 2009.
The segment of supermarkets, whose weight in food trade dropped by 1% in 2008, getting to 14% of the market, this year grew at a faster pace as a result of expansion investments by the three biggest networks on the market, Billa, Carrefour Express and Mega Image.
On the other hand, smaller networks on the market, operated by domestic investors, including Spar, Ethos or Primavara, resized their sales areas by closing down some unprofitable stores amid falling sales.
Foreign retailers also made moves to resize some sales areas. Thus, Billa store in Cluj-Napoca was downsized to half, after the German operator gave a 1,200-square metre area to Altex retailer of electronics and electrical home appliances.
As a matter of fact, Billa in the past year has counted on a format of supermarkets with areas almost 50% smaller than the network's 2008 average, opening stores of 500-1,000 square metres.
Billa Romania is par
