Thursday, December 10 2009 real,- Hypermarket opens the 24th store from its Romanian network, in Ploiesti, following an over 23.8 million euro investment.

The first real,- store in Ploiesti is located outside the city, in Blejoi and has a total surface of  12,500 square meters, out of which 7,731 square meters are selling area, and a parking with over 550 spaces. real,- Ploiesti store follows the new layout design implemented by the company, which aims at making the shopping experience more enjoyable, by providing an extra entry near the food department, exhibiting fresh products like in an open market, implementing the "shop in shop" concept at the electronics departments, developing a seasonal area and two promo walls etc.

About the retailer’s presence in Ploiesti, Mr. Michel Lamoot, Managing Director of real,- Hypermarket Romania, said: "We are glad that beginning with Thursday we enter on such a dynamic retail market as the one in Ploiesti, so, as in all cities where we are present, we shall impose ourselves as a leading employer and a reliable business partner, contributing to the local economy and encouraging the use of regional products. Although we are all confronting with the world economic crisis, real,- continues to invest in Romania, proving its commitment to the local market and encouraging the local production. We invested almost 24 million euro for this new store, the total investment in real,- Romania network – which counts at the moment 24 hypermarkets, amounting around half a billion euro. Moreover, we are proud that real,- family is now enriched with 280 employees in Ploiesti, which can grow in terms of career in a highly professional environment with opportunities for promotion.

real, - Ploiesti comes with a wide range of offers on both sectors - food and non food - the 40,000 products of which 90% come from local producers and suppliers.

With generous and well fitted spaces, the new store has the highest technology equipment in various sectors: first class refrigerating equipments, latest generation of scaling gear, high capacity ovens and grills at the large sectors of Hot Corner and Bakery etc. The shoppers’ flow is ensured by 48 cash registers of which 42 in line with 4 express cash registers included.

"We want to make shopping easier, friendlier and affordable in terms of prices and to inspire our customers, so we developed a store format that provides access to both food and non food sectors, coming up with an improved assortment for fish, wine, vegetables, fruit and hot corner. We are convinced that also in Ploiesti our offer and promotional activities we prepare will be highly appreciated”, added the Managing Director.

This year real,- has developed its own-brand products, by introducing three new brands: real,- QUALITY, real,- BIO and real,- Selection with a higher price/quality ratio. real, - works for its own brands with over 250 domestic suppliers.

Also, with the opening of real,- Ploiesti, the customers will have access to the ENOMATIC system. The advantages are clear: the system allows you to taste and evaluate a certain sort of wine before buying it. We are speaking about top wines or new entries on the market so the system is very useful for the customers in order to become acquainted with them.  More than 320 Romanian wines from the famous vineyards of the country and regions like Banat, Transylvania, Moldavia, Muntenia, Oltenia, Danube terraces, Crisana and Maramures represent the most complete offer in the Romanian modern retail. The real,- main objective is to support and re-launch the Romanian wine-growing centers. Over 300 wines are added to the local offer coming from abroad: 15 countries in Europe (France, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Spain, Portugal etc) or the "New World" (Chile, Argentina, California, South Africa, Australia, etc.). The tasting service is based on a tasting card that has to be pre-loaded with a minimum value of 10 lei, which allows an average of 15 to 20 tastings, depending on the chosen wines. The card can be refilled whenever the customer wants, once the amount was spent. For real,- an important benefit gained with the project implementation is the participation of the company in creating a wine culture among Romanian consumers.

real,- also provides a series of services such as: flexible financing instruments, a test stand for checking out the electronics and appliances, clothes fixing, on-site delivery for goods worth RON 500 or more, office for returning products etc. The opening program is Monday to Saturday 8:00 -23:00 and Sunday 8:00-22:00. For the Christmas period, we have an extended the program, having NON STOP working time, till 24.12.2009.


Notes for the editors:

Last year real, - Romania registered a very strong growth as a result of both new store openings and organic sales growth. The turnover increased from Ron 1.22 billion (Euro 367 million) to Ron 2.35 billion (Euro 638 million) that represents a notable growth of 92% (73.8% for Euro equivalent adjusted with the currency effect) in comparison with the previous year 2007. At the same time real,- continued its ambitious expansion plan on the Romanian retail market with the opening of 6 new stores in 2008 and two in 2009, so, at this moment, the real,- Romania network counts 24 hypermarkets (Three hypermarkets Bucuresti and Timisoara, two in the cities Constanta and Oradea and one in the cities: Arad, Bacau, Baia Mare, Brasov, Cluj, Craiova, Deva, Galati, Pitesti, Ploiesti, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Suceava and Tg. Mures).

The company headcount at the end of 2008 was of 7,568 employees (annual average including HO) with 3,054 more that the headcount at the end of 2007.

*Sales are net values (do not include VAT)

real,- Hypermarket Romania                     

Communication&PR Department                  
Tel: +40(0) 31 403 11 22      
Fax: +40(0) 31 403 10 09      
www.real-hypermarket.ro