Battle for locations

There’s scarcely any other country in eastern Europe where the retail structure is currently changing as fast and as extensively as in Romania. Outside the cities, shopping malls are springing up like mushrooms, financed with help from investors both inside and outside Romania. Retailers in the city centres are reacting only slowly to the competition, however. This naturally also applies to the pet sector. Many of the 1 200 or so independent pet product retailers are investing in modernisation and specialisation, but many more are giving up. The situation is exacerbated by the consumer reticence of the Romanian population when it comes to premium food, high-quality accessories and luxury products. Under the shadow of recession and uncertainty, “value for money” is more in demand than ever. As to when things will be on the up again, none of the retailers asked wanted to speculate. Big regional players The three main players in the pet supplies trade in Romania are Animax, Pet Center and Zoomania. Together they operate just under 60 stores. The leading chain is Animax, the chain belonging to the wholesaler Pet Product, with 24 outlets across the country and a business that has been developing steadily for years. Its latest store is a shop in Pitesti with a retail area of nearly 80 m², which opened on 29 July. General manager Cristian Pop would happily have had twice this retail area, as he told PET worldwide, but to his regret it wasn’t available. The small retail area means that no live pets are for sale here, only food and accessories. New openings have also been announced by Pet Center, the Romanian arm of the speciality retail chain, belonging to Penta Investments with 15 stores at present. The opening of a store in the Carrefour shopping centre in Focsani in September, along with a second store in Bacau, means that the company is now occupying locations that were regarded as problematic before from the economic point of view. Securing locations is more important to the company, however, and by the end of the year the total number of Pet Center outlets is expected to increase to 18. Big things are reported to be happening at Zoomania, the speciality chain of the wholesaler Profi Pet with 19 stores at present. A store opened in the border town of Arad on 6 October, and this year should see the opening of store no. 20 with a retail area of up to 1 000 m² in Constanta on the Black Sea. This will be a very prestigious affair, because the company would then…