ROMANIA: Modern retail openings in May | Progresiv
International retailers have continued investments in expanding their chain of stores, with a total of 20 new business units. Compared with the previous month, modern traders slightly slowed the pace of expansion by two more units, but compared to May last year, they opened three more stores. 
The champion of openings in May remains Profi, who opened 17 new stores, followed by Carrefour, Kaufland and Auchan, each with one store. Of the 17 stores inaugurated by Profi, three are in Standard format, six in City format and eight in Loco format. Through these openings, the retailer owned by Mid Europe Partners investment fund has reached 568 stores nationwide, 67 of which have been inaugurated since the beginning of the year to date.
The previous month was marked by Auchan’s entry on the proximity segment by inaugurating the first MyAuchan store. The unit was opened in the Militari neighbourhood of Bucharest, at a Petrom station. In the first phase of the partnership, Auchan and OMV Petrom are planning to open 15 MyAuchan stores at Petrom stations in Bucharest and the country.
Carrefour marked in May their first opening from scratch in 2017 - the first supermarket in Fagaras. In addition to this inauguration, Carrefour opened its sixth Supeco unit, instead of a Billa supermarket, in Craiova. At this time, Carrefour operates 295 stores, including 32 Carrefour hypermarkets, 143 Market supermarkets, 44 Express proximity stores, 10 proximity shops Contact, an e-commerce platform - www.carrefour-online.ro, 65 Billa stores and 6 Supeco units.
Kaufland also reached halfway its expansion plans last month by inaugurating the third hypermarket in Craiova. From the beginning of the year to the present, the Germans opened three new units, as the expansion plan for 2017 provides for 5-6 new commercial units. With this opening, Kaufland gets to own a chain of 115 hypermarkets nationwide.
For detailed analysis of international retailers’ local expansion, visit the interactive application Retail Universe: www.universulderetail.ro.
