Surprise from Carrefour Romania: the retailer turns a Billa store into Supeco | Progresiv

Less than a month after the official announcement of the integration of Billa stores under the Market banner, Carrefour made a surprising move and turns one of the three Billa supermarkets in Galati into Supeco. With the completion of this project, the Supeco store chain will reach five business units, after nearly two years in which the expansion plans were blocked.

The store was recently reopened and is located on No 66 Milcovului street, with a sales area of 1,800 square meters. Besides the Supeco unit, Carrefour operates in Galati two Billa supermarkets, four Market stores and a Carrefour hypermarket.

Carrefour launched in Romania the Supeco concept in the autumn of 2014, the first store being opened in Ramnicu Valcea. Over time, the French have invested very little in Supeco and were discreet in communicating plans for this chain of stores, the last opening being in the spring of 2015, in Giurgiu. The Supeco concept is similar to the discount profile, the assortment focus being on products at first price. The stores have a sales area between 1,500-2,000 square meters and a range not exceeding 7,000 SKUs.

The Supeco chain is independent of Carrefour Romania, having its own team and a marketing and communication strategy different from the Carrefour hypermarket chain. Supeco Investment company, which operates Carrefour’s Supeco store chain, ended the first year of operation (2015) on the local market with a turnover of about 50 million lei and losses of 8 million lei.