Retailer Profi targets EUR 1 billion sales

Retailer Profi plans to reach a EUR 1 billion turnover by 2017, when its majority shareholder, the investment fund Enterprise Investors, may list the company on both the Warsaw Stock Exchange and on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Profi had sales of over EUR 330 million in 2013, and they are expected to triple by 2017. "The shareholder could mark an exit through a listing on the stock exchange, initially on the Warsaw one, and in parallel on the Bucharest one. A listing requires a certain level of business of around EUR 1 billion, a level which Profi could achieve by 2017. We received bids - both partial and total - but they were rejected," says Pawel Musial, Profi general director, cited by local Ziarul Financiar. Musial will be replaced by Romanian Daniel Cirstea, the company’s operations manager, who will take on as CEO starting January 2015. The Pole will remain a member of the company’s board of directors. Profi has been one of the most active retailers on the local market in expanding its network of supermarkets and proximity shops, which reached a total of 275 units, in December 2014. Enterprise Investors, the Polish investment fund which controls Profi, plans to get it to more than 500 units. Profi’s main competitors on the local market are Belgian retailer Mega Image, which dominates the supermarket segment in Bucharest, German retailers Lidl, Billa and Penny Market, and French Carrefour, which also has a supermarket chain under the brands Carrefour Market and Carrefour Express. French group Auchan also plans to enter this segment. editor@romania-insider.com