German retailer Kaufland will add a food court area to its stores in Romania, as well as an open mall-type shopping space outside of its hypermarkets, the company said.

The first commercial gallery to be transformed is the one on Barbu Vacarescu St. in Bucharest. Here, the inside food court area already hosts restaurants and coffee shops such as Stradale, Cafeneaua Mitzu, the first café launched by Chef Foa, Salad Box, Noodle Pack, Thai Scoops and Tip Top. US restaurant franchise Subway will also open a location here as well. Two non-food areas will remain available in the gallery, namely a Sensiblu pharmacy and an Xpress press distribution outlet.

Kaufland also expanded the commercial gallery with modern containers placed outside of the store, inside the parking lot. These host retail spaces of the Kaufland tenants.

The company says the changes are part of a process of reinventing the shopping experience and stem from the wish of offering clients more than a hypermarket.

“This step is the start to our ‘malls’. It is a project implementing the food-to-food connect vision and a part of our constant endeavor to offer a complete shopping experience. People need more and more. This is why we are continuing with the hypermarket reinvention process, with all our recent innovative initiatives,” Andrei Secrețianu, director of Lease/ B2B Sales at Kaufland Romania, said.

Other locations in the network will be gradually transformed.

Kaufland Romania also announced in mid-July that it was turning its stores’ roofs, parking lots, and plots of land located near schools into green spaces where people can grow vegetables, fruits, aromatic plants or flowers.

In April 2017 Kaufland opened a first summer store set up in a tent, in the balneo resort of Sovata.

The retailer currently operates 115 stores in Romania. It is one of the largest European retailers, with over 1,250 stores in seven countries.

Kaufland plans to open at least six units in Romania by year-end

editor@romania-insider.com