The French who defined the hypermarket concept in Romania have seen their market share shrink from almost 50% to 29% over the last three years, as a result of the aggressive expansion of the German networks operating in the same field and of the sudden halt in investments of the French company in Romania in 2009, ZF estimates show.
The retailer, which opened the first hypermarket in Romania in 2001, is now seeing its market leader position threatened, but is not fighting back yet.
The first year when the major food store chains were faced with declines in consumption on the Romanian market brought a 180 degree turn in the strategy of the French retailer on its most important market, hypermarkets. In 2009, the company completed only two expansion projects and dropped one location in Braila, while the Germans at Real and Kaufland gained ground by opening four and six new stores.
The halt in Carrefour's expansion investments is even more surprising considering the network announced in 2008 it had plans to expand at a pace of seven hypermarkets a year until 2012, and in 2007 was negotiating acquisitions of supermarkets and discounters to tap into a second market segment in Romania.
"Carrefour Group has no intention to stop expansion in Romania," Carrefour Group officials said, without providing further information.
The French who defined the hypermarket concept in Romania have seen their market share shrink from almost 50% to 29% over the last three years, as a result of the aggressive expansion of the German networks operating in the same field and of the sudden halt in investments of the French company in Romania in 2009, ZF estimates show.
The retailer, which opened the first hypermarket in Romania in 2001, is now seeing its market leader position threatened, but is not fighting back yet.
The first year when the major food store
