Carrefour closes its first hypermarket in Bucharest

Carrefour, one of the biggest retailers in Romania, will close its hypermarket in Vitantis Shopping Center starting January 15, the company announced on Monday. It’s for the first time since entering the local market when Carrefour closes a hypermarket in Bucharest. Before this decision, the group had 32 large format stores in Romania, 12 of which were located in Bucharest. “After a careful and substantiated analysis, we have decided together with our partner Revetas Capital, to close the Carrefour hypermarket in Vitantis Shopping Center, considering the changes in market environment and our clients’ preferences in the surrounding area, over the 10 years of operations,” reads the Carrefour press release. The company announced that it will support the employees to find other jobs within the network. Revetas Capital, the investment fund that owns Vitantis Shopping Center, also announced that it would close the commercial gallery, which will undergo a significant restructuring and partial reconversion. The fund motivated that the online retail has changes the market conditions. Revetas bought the project in 2014 for some EUR 26 million. Vitantis Shopping Center opened in 2008 and was at that time one of the biggest retail projects in Bucharest, with a leasable area of 36,000 sqm. Besides the Carrefour hypermarket and the retail gallery, it also includes a Praktiker do-it-yourself store and a Casa Rusu furniture store. editor@romania-insider.com