German-held Metro group, the biggest player in the Romanian trade, could resume its expansion on the cash & carry segment over the following 2 or 3 years, after having reached 23 outlets last year.
"The 23 outlets are sufficient for the moment and are in line with the group's coverage strategy, that is one outlet for per one million inhabitants," stated Francois Oliver, general manager of Metro Cash & Carry Romania.
He specified the next store openings by the company would target areas that are not covered by international trade chains, with a high enough purchasing power.
"Until then, we want to bring all the outlets of Romania to the standard of the outlets opened last year. Some outlets could be expanded, in terms of surface area," added Oliver.
The first three already modernised outlets are those in Bucharest-Militari, Timisoara and Brasov, each of them having entailed investments standing at 4-4.5 million euros.
Other stores to be modernised are those in Suceava, Cluj-Napoca and Constanta, with investments in this project due to reach 27 million euros at the end of next year.
At the same time, Metro's strategy also includes focusing on the HoReCa (hotel-restaurant-catering) segment, as this is the customer category with the highest growth potential. "We will boost sales by attracting more customers over the following years. The space for fresh products will get bigger in existing outlets because we plan to attract in customers from the HoReCa segment. Moreover, the development of fresh product categories will help us secure our customers' loyalty," stated Oliver.
Another element of the strategies aimed at ensuring customer loyalty and at consolidating the partnerships with suppliers is the organisation of Metro's own exhibition, Metro Expo, this month. The company has earmarked more than 2 million euros for this event, a
