ROMANIA: Modern retail openings in January | Progresiv
International retailers started the year in force, marking a much accelerated pace of expansion compared with January 2016. Thus, modern retailers opened 16 stores last month compared to 5 stores opened in January last year. 
The champion of openings is Profi, with 10 new stores, of which five were opened in Loco format, 3 under the City banner and two in Standard format. With these openings, the retailer reaches 511 stores in 263 cities all over the country.
In second place among the most expansive retailers is Penny Market discounter, which opened four new stores in Sacele, Oravita, Bolintin Vale and Popesti Leordeni (initially announced for the end of December). For this year the retailer announced plans to open 25 commercial units and in parallel with the chain expansion, to enter a new phase of development by implementing a new retail concept. Until now, the concept internally called "Future Store Concept" has already been implemented in 90 of the 200 stores owned by Penny Market in Romania.
German discounter Lidl marked a new opening last month, inaugurating the third commercial unit in Drobeta Turnu-Severin. With this opening, Lidl operates 204 stores nationwide. This year Lidl announced that it intends to maintain the pace of expansion, with the plan to open 10-11 new stores.
Mega Image also opened one commercial unit, in the Capital. The store works in proximity format Shop & Go and is the 527th Mega Image location on the Romanian market.
For detailed analysis on the expansion of international retailers locally access the interactive application Retail Universe: www.universulderetail.ro.
