French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin will open its first store in eastern Romania, in Suceava, on May 12. It is the company’s 12th store in the country.

The unit will cover 11,000 sqm and will trade almost 30,000 products.

Leroy Merlin opened its first local store in 2011, in Bucharest. In 2014, the French retailer bought the 15 stores that Austrian DIY retailer bauMax had in Romania. Most of the Leroy Merlin units opened in the past two years are rebranded bauMax stores. The investment to rebrand and rearrange each store is about EUR 1-1.5 million.

Leroy Merlin also increased the number of employees in the stores.

editor@romania-insider.com