ROMANIA: Cora to close its first hypermarket in the country | Progresiv
Cora hypermarkets chain, owned by French-Belgian group Louis Delhaize, will close on June 1st the hypermarket operated in Galleria shopping center in Arad, announced the mall owner, GTC Romania. 
“We received Cora’s notification and at the moment we are exploring all legal options as the existing lease contract was signed for a period of 10 years. At the same time, we are in discussions with various other hypermarket operators as well as other notorious retailers as Cora’s departure is not synonymous with the end of activity for Galleria Arad, there are always other options”, said Danny Bercovich, CEO of GTC Romania.
The hypermarket chains have been facing for many years weak sales in the Western part of the country, given that many Romanians cross the border to do their weekly shopping in stores from Hungary, where prices are lower than here.
Thus, Carrefour closed a hypermarket in Arad in the summer of 2012, while Real chain closed, in the same year, one of its three stores in Timisoara. Also, two of the four Real hypermarkets Auchan did not want to take over in Romania after the transaction with Metro Group are located in Arad and Oradea.
Cora, who opened the store in Arad in the autumn of 2011, currently owns 12 hypermarkets, of which four are located in Bucharest. Thus, Cora chain will have 11 operational hypermarkets as of June 1st. The retailer has not announced any expansion plans for this year.
