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International do-it-yourself retailers bet on expansion in 2009

International do-it-yourself store chains operating on the Romanian market plan to invest up to 250 million euros in expansion in 2009, compared with total investments worth 170 million euros this year, according to plans announced this month by retailers, Ziarul financiar daily reads on Tuesday.

The six international retailers operating on the domestic market - Praktiker, Bricostore, BauMax, Mr. Bricolage, Hornabch and OBI - might open between 21 and 42 new stores next year, against 16 in 2008.

Nevertheless, such companies are looking very careful into the future, being prepared to adjust their budgets in 2009, in the case the domestic market will be affected in the first quarter of 2009 by such difficulties in the financial sector.

Guenter Vosskaemper, general manager with Praktiker Romania, said that the Romanian do-it-yourself sector continues to show an important growth potential, but with the expectations so far related to its evolution needing to be adjusted for 2009, in the current economic context.

Praktiker, which is the leader of the local do-it-yourself market, has expanded in the latest four years by opening 4-5 new stores a year, estimating for 2009 the maintaining of this expansion rate. The development of the network nationwide is to stay the number one priority of the company in Romania next year, with the company currently managing 25 stores on the Romanian market, according to its general manager.

Bricostore, which is the second do-it-yourself retailer in Romania, bets more on making its activity more efficient in the context the company's general manager Isabelle Pleska expects a slowing down in the development of the market in 2009, due to the increase in the crediting costs.

The retailer, which is currently holding 13 units on the domestic market, wants to maintain this accelerated growth pace of minimum 5 units per year, but with the representatives of the company having recently stated the company intends to open between 3 and 5 new stores next year. Bricostore is to open a new store in Calarasi (southern Romania) early in 2009.

Another French network, Mr. Bricolage, which operated in Romania through a partnership with the owner of the store-network Arabesque, estimated investments worth 14 million euros in two new locations in 2009 that are expected to double the number of operational stores of the retailer on the domestic market. The cities in which the retailer will open its new stores will be Iasi (northeastern) and Buzau (eastern), according to Tudor Profir, general manager with Mr. Bricolage Romania.

OBI was launched in Romania only recently, in November this year, at a time when the retailers in this sector of the domestic market were already preparing strategies to face more difficult conditions on the market, with the representatives of the newly entered company having said on the occasion of the opening of their first store in Bucharest that they see no threat yet. They also said that OBI has the necessary financial resources available - 50 million euros - to develop a 10-store network in Romania.

In 2009, the first new OBI unitsin Romania will be located close to hypermarkets in Arad (western Romania) and Pitesti (southern Romania), according to the OBI representatives. The retailer will inaugurate these two stores in the first quarter of next year.

 

Sursa: http://www.rompress.ro

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