Thus, 16 pairs of children’s shoes were sold every minute in Romania since the beginning of this year, compared to 11 pairs per minute in January-July 2008, which corresponds to a 44 percent increase, up to a total of 1.42 million pairs.
This increase is rather spectacular considering that the local footwear market fell 30-40 percent, and large footwear retailers are restructuring their businesses, closing stores or changing their strategies. In the first seven months of this year, 15.8 million pairs of shoes were sold in Romania, down 24 percent year-on-year. Women’s shoe sales registered a decline of 22 percent, while men’s footwear sales dropped 33 percent.
“Due to stores opened last year, a 30-35 percent annual increase in net sales could have been possible this year, but the financial crisis led to a decline in sales of some 30 percent for each store in the first six months,” said Dan Pavel, General Manager of the Benvenuti footwear retailer.
