Romanians shell out five salaries a year for fast-moving consumer goods

Bananas, mineral water, sugar, and sunflower oil are the top-sold products in Romanian hypermarkets, both quantitative and according to value, according to ample research carried out by Business Standard on the retail segment.

Romanians use loans to buy refrigerators, washing machines, televisions and furniture, with hypermarket networks making 12 percent of their revenue from such goods.

Hypermarkets serve all segments of the population, with discount stores attracting more of the population with lower incomes, and cash&carry stores the choice of entrepreneurs.

“This trend shows the process of maturation of the retail sector, especially in terms of level of sophistication of the Romanian consumer,” according to Ionut Pascu, Senior Consultant of the Roland Berger strategy and advisory company, who added that there is still no clear distinction between the main retail concepts (supermarket, hypermarket, discount).

“The advance of population income, which will generate an increase in consumption, as well as the expansion of modern forms of trade, are major factors that will generate growth on the fast moving consumer goods market,” said Andreea Mihai, Director of Marketing of Carrefour Romania, the largest hypermarket chain locally, which is expecting sales this year to exceed €1 billion.