ROMANIA: Agricola Bacau doesn’t exclude an exit for the store division | Progresiv

In the context of growing competition within proximity trade, Agricola Bacau's store division, one of the most important players in the local meat industry, reported a decline in business in the first half of the year. Moreover, the chain has decreased to 32 stores after three locations were closed in the first three months. Grigore Horoi, president of the group, explained for Progresiv what are the options that the company taken into consideration for this business.

The Agricola Magazine division, which represents its own retail chain, has shrunk its turnover by 8.79% in the first half of this year, while the rest of the companies within the group are showing rising business. Thus, Agricola Magazine reported a turnover of 12.6 million lei in the same period, down compared to the same period of 2016, when the division had a turnover of 13.8 million lei.

"The evolution of the turnover achieved by Agricola Magazine was influenced in the first half of 2017 by the growing competition in proximity trade where, in addition to the stores owned by the small merchants (which still ignore the taxation rules), there have appeared small formations of major international retailers that are developing in these areas", said Grigore Horoi.

Agricola Magazine counted 35 units earlier this year, of which 22 are owned by the company and the rest are rented.

"Some of them did not have a proper customer traffic for food trade. In this context, after rigorous analysis, we concluded that three of them should be closed", Grigore Horoi added.

According to him, the company, together with an external consultant, works "to optimize the portfolio of products and services attached and thus to improve economic performance".