The seven international groups which control Romania’s retail market last year made more than EUR 8 billion in revenues, according to calculations made by Romania-Insider.com on public data from the Romanian Finance Ministry.

Discount hypermarket chain Kaufland, which is part of German group Schwarz, consolidated its leading position, posting sales of EUR 1.64 billion, 14 percent higher than in 2012. Kaufland, who entered the Romanian market in 2005, reached a network of 89 stores at the end of last year and it continues expansion. The company had more than 12,500 employees in Romania in 2013.

Schwarz is also present in Romania with its other brand, Lidl, which is a discount supermarket chain. Lidl had one of the most rapid expansions in Romania, reaching a network of 175 supermarkets in just four years. The company didn’t publish its financial results for 2012 and 2013 at the Finance Ministry, but it most likely surpassed the EUR 500 million mark (in 2011 it had EUR 380 mln in sales). Kaufland and Lidl together make more than EUR 2 billion sales in Romania.

German group Metro, which dominated the Romanian modern commerce in the beginning with its cash&carry stores, halted its expansion in recent years. The group now has 32 units in Romania, which make close to EUR 1 billion in sales. Metro's results are not yet public at the Finance Ministry. The German group changed its business year starting 2013 and so the last result published for Romania is for the period October 1, 2012 – September 30, 2013.

Metro also sold its Real hypermarket business in Romania to Auchan. The transaction was announced end-2012, but was finalized in 2013. Following this transaction, French group Auchan saw its business in Romania go past the EUR 1 billion threshold. For 2013, Auchan and Real made separate reporting at the Finance Ministry. Auchan had some EUR 521 million in sales while Real made EUR 514 million. After it took over of real, Auchan operates a network of 31 hypermarkets in Romania.

Auchan currently competes for second place with French co-national Carrefour, which was the first foreign retailer to open a hypermarket in Romania in 2001. Carrefour now has 25 hypermarkets in Romania which last year had sales of EUR 971 million. In recent years, Carrefour also expanded its supermarket network in Romania, which is operated by a separate company, Artima. In 2013, Artima had sales of EUR 185 million, 18 percent higher than in 2012. The two entities make more than EUR 1.15 billion in sales.

German group Rewe operates in Romania through three entities, Selgros Cash&Carry, Rewe Romania, which owns the Penny Market supermarket chain, and Billa Romania, which has the Billa supermarkets. Together, the three companies make more than EUR 1.5 billion in sales on the local market. Last year, Selgros saw its business decline by 9 percent, to EUR 700 million, while Penny Market grew 15 percent to almost EUR 500 million and Billa increased its business by 8 percent to EUR 308 million.

Belgian group Delhaize, which owns the Mega Image supermarket chain and the Shop&Go proximity shops, had the strongest growth last year. Mega Image increased sales by 34 percent, to EUR 530 million, on strong expansion in the capital city of Bucharest.

Another Belgian group, Louis Delhaize, which owns the Cora hypermarkets, saw it sales up by 13.5 percent, to EUR 375 million.

The Profi supermarkets, owned by investment fund Polish Enterprise Fund VI, managed by Enterprise Investors, had a turnover of EUR 330 million, 27 percent higher than in 2012.

The retail groups have almost 70,000 employees in Romania.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com