The Simply by Auchan convenience store network reaches the threshold of 10 units opened in the first six months of its launch, with the most recent stores being inaugurated in Pitești and Buzău. The 10 convenience stores operate in both urban and rural areas, and next year the company aims to expand this concept to as many localities as possible.

Most entrepreneurs who operate a Simply by Auchan store today are owners of proximity stores who have chosen to develop their businesses by switching to the Simply by Auchan franchise.

“Expanding the franchise store network is one of our main development objectives for 2025, through which we aim to bring the Auchan difference as close as possible to every Romanian. We welcome the local partners who have chosen to be part of the Auchan community, both experienced specialists in trade and entrepreneurs at the beginning of their journey, we thank them for their trust and assure them that they can count on Auchan for a long-term collaboration based on professionalism, innovation and continuous support,” says Ioana Toșa, Auchan Romania Sales Director.

Lidl continues its investments locally by opening two new stores in Vladimirescu commune and Râmnicu Vâlcea. The Lidl store in Vladimirescu commune, Arad county, has a sales area of over 1,400 square meters and has 118 parking spaces. The Lidl store inaugurated in Râmnicu Vâlcea municipality, Vâlcea county, has a sales area of over 1,300 square meters and has 96 parking spaces.

With the inauguration of these stores, over 50 new jobs were created.

Lidl currently operates over 12,350 stores and over 225 logistics centers and warehouses in 31 countries. Currently, Lidl has approximately 376,000 employees, of which over 12,000 are in Romania, where the German retailer has over 350 stores and 6 logistics centers.

The German retailer Kaufland plans to open a new store in Domnesti, the second in the locality after the one near Hornbach and the seventh in Ilfov County.

The real estate company Domre SRL, with Italian shareholders, owns several plots of vacant land here with a cumulative area of about 7.8 hectares. For a piece of about 2 hectares of this land, Kaufland has signed a bilateral promise of sale, with a deadline for the completion of the sale-purchase contract in November 2025. The Domre company is now at the stage of technical documentation for obtaining the construction permit for a hypermarket with a developed area of about 5,400 square meters.

If it is realized, this will be the second Kaufland hypermarket in the locality, after Kaufland Domnești West Park was inaugurated in 2022, built on land purchased from Hornbach.

Source: Profit.ro

Carrefour Romania wants to expand its Express proximity store network by over 40 units next year, after opening 16 stores under this brand in 2024. The Express store format is the one that recorded the highest growth in 2024, according to the company.

For 2025, the retailer aims to accelerate its Express format development plans with over 40 units, located both in pedestrian areas with intense traffic and within important projects in new residential areas.

“The Express store format is the one that recorded the highest growth in 2024. We have sensed this trend since past years and have allocated resources to support consistent double-digit growth. We have implemented a new strategy to test small spaces, which allows us to accelerate the pace of store openings in 2025, with the objective of exceeding the number of stores opened in 2024. The retail market will continue to grow in 2025, and the proximity format will continue to be a strong driver in the future,” said Roxana Cernica, Small Formats Business Unit Director Carrefour Romania.

The retailer will also continue the remodeling process of older stores, including the installation of self-service kiosks.

Source: economica.net

BT Property Alternative Investment Fund, managed by BT Asset Management SAI SA, announced the acquisition of the Prima Shops Oradea shopping center from the Oasis group, a local company in the retail property development and management sector owned by businessmen Klaus Reisenauer and Kurt Wagner.

Romania recorded a 131% increase in the volume of real estate transactions in the first half of the year, up to EUR 418 million, the highest advance in Central and Eastern Europe, an evolution that placed it in third position in the region, after Poland and the Czech Republic, ahead of Hungary and Slovakia.

Retail property transactions and industrial projects were the engine of the local market, representing 90% of the total volume, while offices had a share of only 4%, according to data from real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield. The retail sector attracted 47% of the investment volume, while the logistics sector had a share of 43%.

Auchan, one of the strongest players on the food retail market, is preparing a new hypermarket concept spanning more than 6,000 sqm for RIVUS Cluj-Napoca, featuring an innovative format, adapted to the central location and the vision of the mixed-use project.

Auchan is a long-standing retail partner of IULIUS, being present in most of the group’s projects: Palas Iași, Iulius Town Timișoara, Iulius Mall Suceava and Iulius Mall Cluj, as well as Family Market Bucium and Family Market Miroslava.

“RIVUS is a regional scale project and our largest investment to this date. We built a wonderful partnership with Auchan as early as 2007, when our collaboration was also based in a project in Cluj-Napoca, namely Iulius Mall. We are delighted that RIVUS project will include an Auchan hypermarket, based on our successful previous collaboration and the partner’s capacity to develop customized concepts, in line with the values and requirements of our projects, as was the case for Palas Iași back in 2012, where they opened the first Auchan City format in Romania, with excellent performances. The Auchan hypermarket in RIVUS will have a new format, tailored to the premium concept of the project, for which we are preparing a complete mix, with regional and national premieres not only in the retail segment, but also in terms of the leisure, cultural, entertainment and edutainment offer,” said Oana Diaconescu, Head of Leasing Retail IULIUS.