Carrefour Romania sales up 36.8% in Q1

However, foreign exchange rate variations reduced the company’s Romanian turnover by 12.6 percent. Turnover in Eastern Europe was up 25 percent in Q1, due to acquisitions in Romania and Poland.

Carrefour is the third-largest retail group in terms of turnover on the Romanian market. The local network posted sales worth €866 mln in 2007, 54.5 percent higher year-on-year. Excluding foreign exchange rate variations, Carrefour sales in Romania advanced 61.5 percent.

The company owns 11 hypermarkets in Romania, of which five are in Bucharest, and it plans to open new hypermarkets in 2008 in Oradea, Arad, Pitesti, Suceava, Iasi and Bucharest.

Carrefour Romania signed a takeover agreement of the Artima supermarket chain, worth €55 mln in order to consolidate its market position. The main companies on Romanian hypermarket segment are Carrefour, Cora, Auchan, Real, Kaufland and Pic.