Romanians To Spend RON96B In Retail Stores This Year, Up 7% On ’09 - Euromonitor

Last year, food and non-food sales cumulated RON90.1 billion, up 6% on 2008, when the market reached EUR85.2 billion, according to data issued by research company Euromonitor International.

Thus, stores will generate sales of RON94.3 billion, up 7.1% on the RON88.1 billion seen in 2008. Direct, online and home shopping sales will grow by 3.5%, to RON2.08 billion, after a 4.5% decline in the previous year.

According to the analysis, in the 2010 - 2015 interval, modern commerce will continue to expand to small towns and rural areas, where there is no coverage at the moment. In 2009, traditional stores suffered greater losses in the economic crisis, compared to modern commerce, because they are not financially powerful companies, banks limited their loans and they had problems with their own distributors. On the other hand, modern commerce store chains offer a wider range of less expensive products and they allow the purchase of larger quantities.

This year there will be six new hypermarkets opened in Romania, as well as 23 supermarkets and 66 discount stores. Thus, the overall number of hypermarkets will reach 110, supermarkets will reach 438 while discount stores numbers will reach 344.

Also, apparel and footwear retailers will open 123 stores, while health and beauty product retailers will open over 70 units. Personal care or entertainment products are some of the most wanted, so retailers on this segment will invest in setting up some 300 stores, according to Euromonitor.

On the other hand, over 900 small grocery stores will disappear, as well as some 100 units specializing in trade with home and gardening items.

As for malls, Euromonitor specialists said the plans of developers are unclear, as many of the small projects planned for last year were put off for 2010.

Euromonitor International has eight offices worldwide and a team of over 600 analysts.

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