French retailer Leroy Merlin will complete the rebranding process of the bauMax stores in mid-2016, reaching a network of 16 stores by the end of next year.

The company will hire another 600 people for the new units, reports local Economica.net. It currently has some 1,300 employees.

Leroy Merlin took over the bauMax stores last year. It has already opened three of these stores, in Bucharest, Ploiesti and Brasov, and will open another two in Cluj-Napoca and Sibiu by the end of this year.

At the end of 2015, the company will operate eight stores across the country. The investment to rebrand and rearrange each store is about EUR 1-1.5 million, depending on its size.

The new stores also have more employees, about 100 each, compared to 30 to 50 employees in the former bauMax stores.

The retailer has also closed two stores which were not profitable, one of them located in Bucharest and the other one in Pitesti.

On the longer term, Leroy Merlin plans to reach 20 to 25 stores in Romania and sees further potential for new stores in Bucharest, Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca.

editor@romania-insider.com