Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Retail

  • Dutch discount chain Action to open an outlet in Supersam Katowice

    Dutch discount chain Action to open an outlet in Supersam Katowice

    Dutch discount chain Action is to open an outlet of 1,000 sqm in the Supersam shopping centre in Katowice, Poland.

    The opening is planned for the spring of 2021.

    The Action store in Supersam will be located on the lower ground floor and will sell body-care products, cleaning products, clothes, toys, household items, interior furnishings and pet supplies. It will also stock snacks and beverages.

    As much as two-thirds of the product range will be regularly rotated and every week up to 150 new products will appear on the shelves.

    Supersam includes almost 23,000 sqm of retail and service space.

    A total of 70 stores and service points are located on three retail floors while a Calypso fitness club and 6,500 sqm of office space can be found on the upper floors.

    On the final level, there will be a car park with 400 spaces. 

  • Polish fashion retailer Sinsay opened its first store in Botosani, Romania

    Polish fashion retailer Sinsay opened its first store in Botosani, Romania

    The fashion brand Sinsay, part of the LPP Fashion group, has opened a mono-brand store in Botoşani within the Uvertura Mall shopping center.

    The Polish group has been present in Romania since 2007 and owns 77 stores under five brands: Reserved, Cropp, Mohito, House and Sinsay.

    The new unit in Botoşani under the Sinsay brand has an area of ​​900 square meters. At the same time, through the Sinsay opening, the shopping center will reach a 100% occupancy rate.

    Sinsay is the youngest brand of LPP Polish group, being launched in 2013. Originally, Sinsay was designed as a brand dedicated to teenage girls but under the new strategy of development, the brand’s collection was completed to meet the needs of the whole family.

    Currently Sinsay counts 25 stores in Romania and the largest one will have 2,000 square meters and will be open in the Colloseum Mall project in Bucharest.

  • Four in ten consumers plan to spend less this Christmas than last year

    Four in ten consumers plan to spend less this Christmas than last year

    Almost four in ten consumers (38%) plan to spend less this Christmas than last year in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, according to Deloitte 2020 Holiday Retail Survey.

    The study underlines that anxieties related to financial concerns are reshaping consumer’s approach to the shopping season, as respondents’ main reasons for the increased caution are related to the economic instability (50%) and their plans to save more (40%).

    The study surveyed more than 4,000 US consumers and provides key insights into how COVID-19 is influencing the holiday season.

    Travel and experiences are the items on which consumers will mostly cut back this holiday season, with 34% of them investing less than last year in socializing away from home.

    Gift cards are the top preference for this year (48%), followed by clothes (43%) and games and toys (40%).

    At the opposite side, jewelry, pet toys, décor and accessories (24%) are the last options considered as a gift for this year’s holiday shopping sessions.

    As restrictions put in place in the context of the health global crisis become stricter during the Christmas holidays, consumers plan to stay close to home and indulge on beverages (33%) and food (30%), the first two items that respondents would buy for themselves during the season.

    Consumers prefer to shop online

    Whether they shop for others or for themselves, consumers prefer to shop online because they can avoid crowds (65%), are more comfortable shopping from home (64%) and can benefit from free shipping (60%).

    Half of consumers (51%) are anxious about shopping in-store during the holiday season due to COVID-19 and 49% of them said they would resume pre-COVID-19 shopping behavior only when a vaccine is developed.

    Besides this preference for online shopping, consumers favor convenience, as 69% of respondents mentioned that they prefer stores closer to their residence.

    Four different profiles of shoppers emerge

    Based on the analysis of shopping behaviour during the holiday season, four different profiles of shoppers emerge in the market, the study concludes.

    The festive shoppers (27%), eager to buy gifts for others and less for themselves, and the efficient shoppers (24%), who see shopping as a task and consider maximum four stores overall, are the first two dominant profiles.

    The following two identified profiles are the conscious shopper (18%), willing to pay more for cautious responsible products and preferring shopping from local retailers than national retail chains, and the deal-seeker (16%), who plans to spend for more than one month for holiday shopping and waits for the holiday sales to buy expensive items for themselves or their household.

  • 5.4 million Italians signed up to a scheme which offers a 10% refund for card payments

    5.4 million Italians signed up to a scheme which offers a 10% refund for card payments

    More than 5.4 million Italians have signed up to a government scheme which offers a 10% refund for card payments in stores by the end of the year.

    This action is an attempt by authorities to reduce tax evasion and help retailers affected by the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), reports Reuters.

    The ”cashback” initiative will officially start next month, but the pilot program began on December 8 and lasts until the end of the year.

    The scheme, which allows savings of up to 150 euros, has already attracted 10% of the adult population.

    ”Cashback” program will be doubled from January 1, 2021 by an ”invoice-based lottery” and a prize of 1,500 euros for 100,000 people who have the highest number of card purchases in a period of six months.

    Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government estimates that the use of card payments will reduce tax evasion, estimated by the Ministry of Finance at almost 109 billion euros a year.

    Analysts believe that Italy has the largest tax evasion in the European Union.

  • Immofinanz expands its Stop Shop portfolio by eight locations

    Immofinanz expands its Stop Shop portfolio by eight locations

    Six fully rented retail parks in Serbia and the Czech Republic with roughly 43,000 sqm were purchased from Mitiska REIM, a Belgian investor specialised in these types of commercial properties.

    In addition, Immofinanz closed the purchase of a fully rented retail park (approx. 5,500 sqm) in Voitsberg, Austria, during the fourth quarter of 2020.

    The portfolio in Croatia will be increased by one property in the city of Ludbreg.

    The expected annual rental income from these recently acquired properties totals approximately EUR 5.7 million, and the gross return ranges up to 8.9% for example in Serbia.

    The Stop Shop portfolio now covers 98 locations in nine countries with nearly 720,000 sqm of rentable space and a carrying amount of approximately EUR 1 billion.

    Further acquisitions and internal development projects are currently in preparation.

    Acquisitions in Austria, Czech Republic and Croatia already completed

    The property acquisitions in Austria, the Czech Republic and Croatia have already been finalised.

    The retail park in Voitsberg, which was purchased from a local developer, raises the number of Stop Shops in Austria to 14 locations with roughly 67,000 sqm of rentable space.

    The two retail parks in the Czech cities of Prague and Litvinov with 14,700 sqm in total increase the Stop Shop portfolio in this country to 12 locations with nearly 88,000 sqm of rentable space.

    The real estate package in Serbia includes locations in Leskovac, Sabac, Sombor and Zajecar with roughly 28,200 sqm of rentable space.

    Immofinanz‘s Serbian Stop Shop portfolio will now include 14 properties with approximately 121,000 sqm. The closing is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2021.

    Immofinanz entered the Croatian market with its Stop Shops at the end of 2018. Together with the newly acquired property, the retailer has three STOP SHOPs with 16,400 sqm and further projects are in preparation.

  • SPAR Italy named Retailer of the Year 2020-2021 in the ”supermarket” category

    SPAR Italy named Retailer of the Year 2020-2021 in the ”supermarket” category

    SPAR Italy, locally known as DESPAR, has been recognised as retail brand of the year for the year 2020-2021 in the ”supermarket” category.

    The criteria voted upon included price, assortment, service, communications, shopping convenience, and look-and-feel.

    Other factors that contributed to SPAR Italy’s success were the quality and variety of its own brand products and the brand’s initiatives to add value to its local communities.

    Retailer’s health and well-being product offering, as well as its commitment to environmental sustainability, were also deciding factors.

    In Italy, the award was launched in 2008 as ”Retailer of the Year” and is currently known as ”Insegna dell’anno”.

    For this year’s Italy edition, the organisers evaluated 543 retail brands across the various categories, which embrace both food and non-food retail.

    Over 205,000 votes were expressed earlier this year by Italian consumers.

  • Poland: Office of Competition imposed a fine of PLN 723 million on Biedronka

    Poland: Office of Competition imposed a fine of PLN 723 million on Biedronka

    Jeronimo Martins Polska, the owner of the Biedronka network, was earning unfairly to the detriment of food suppliers, UOKiK announced.

    The data collected by the Authority in the course of the proceedings and controls in the offices of this entrepreneur prove that the company was arbitrarily imposing some discounts, mainly for the suppliers of fruit and vegetables.

    Thus, only during the three years audited by the Authority, that is: in 2018, 2019 and 2020 – as a result of the challenged practices – the Jeronimo Martins Polska company earned more than PLN 600 million in cooperation with the food sector.

    During the period under investigation the prohibited actions affected more than 200 business entities while approximately 80% of the instances pertained to fruit and vegetable supplies.

    In marginal cases the value of the unfair discount was exceeding 20% of the entire trading value with Biedronka.

    This is the biggest sanction for abusing of superior bargaining power imposed to date.

  • Miniso opens first store in Iceland and in Northern Europe

    Miniso opens first store in Iceland and in Northern Europe

    Miniso opened its first store in Iceland, as well as Northern Europe. This marks the fourth store that Miniso has opened in Europe just this month.

    Miniso first Iceland store is located in the famous Kringlan Mall in the capital Reykjavik.

    Given the consumer interest, the store had, at times, more than 100 people in queue, while the average purchase per customer totaled 7 items during the first two days of opening.

    Products presented in this newly-opened Miniso store in Iceland, such as cosmetic brush, facial razor, silicone face cleanser, eye massager, all kinds of cups and plush dolls, have unsurprisingly become popular among local consumers.

    New stores in France and the UK

    Elsewhere in Europe, Miniso opened two stores in France including the first POP UP store in FNAC Beaugrenelle, and one store in the United Kingdom this month.

    The France store, located in the town of Plaisir just next to Paris, is the country’s second Miniso store after its prestigious Chaussée d’Antin location in the country’s capital.

    In the United Kingdom, Miniso has opened stores in Cambridge and Cardiff recently.

  • Marc O’Polo opens the largest mono-brand store in Romania

    Marc O’Polo opens the largest mono-brand store in Romania

    The fashion brand Marc O’Polo, present in over 2,000 point of sales in 37 countries, opens the fourth mono-brand store in Romania in the AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping center in Bucharest.

    Marc O’Polo is a brand founded over 50 years ago in Stockholm, being present in Romania through its mono-brand stores located in Bucharest Mall, Fashion House Militari and Iulius Mall Cluj-Napoca.

    The store in AFI Palace Cotroceni is the largest in the network (235 square meters).

    Headquartered in Stephanskirchen in the area of Munich, Germany, Marc O’Polo has about 1,800 employees and had a turnover of 430 million euros in the fiscal year 2019/2020.

    The brand is present both in the western markets and in Central and Eastern Europe and China.

  • Delivery and takeout orders increased by 14% since the COVID-19 outbreak

    Delivery and takeout orders increased by 14% since the COVID-19 outbreak

    Since the COVID-19 outbreak, delivery and takeout orders increased by 14% for consumers ordering once a month or more, driving restaurants to rethink their physical footprints, according to a Deloitte study conducted among restaurant customers and executives in the industry from the US.

    Almost two thirds (68%) of consumers say they order delivery and 52%, takeout, and nearly half (46%) of the survey respondents expect these habits to remain at current levels once the pandemic ends.

    Millennials (ages 23 to 39) are leading the way in placing delivery orders (65%), 13% more than in the pre-COVID period, while 77% of Gen X (ages 40 to 55) respondents prefer takeout orders, 20% more than in the pre-COVID period.

    The study underlines that convenience, which has always been a major consumers demand, continues to top their expectations, with 62% of respondents saying this is their main reason for patronizing a restaurant.

    In the current context, convenience also includes delivery costs and wait times, pickup locations and contact.

    In terms of delivery costs, respondents consider a $4 average delivery fee to be fair. When it comes to wait times, 75% of respondents consider 30 minutes or less to be reasonable and only 20% consider it realistic to wait up to 45 minutes for their meal.

    While the restaurant spending is down more than 20% compared to the previous year, the study highlights a new trend in consumption, namely the increase in the size of the average restaurant check, which indicates more customers are looking for family or multi-portion meals and represents useful information for restaurants in reshaping their offer.

    Tech-savvy consumers demand digital engagement from restaurants and want cutting-edge technology options that recognize them and know their preferences, according to the survey conclusions and they are willing to allocate additional financial resources and pay an average of 14% more for such services.

    Seven out of ten respondents prefer to order digitally for off-premise delivery, 57% have a third-party delivery app on their phones and 48% follow a social media account from a restaurant or food brand.

  • French retailer Leroy Merlin buys a former Praktiker store in Brasov

    French retailer Leroy Merlin buys a former Praktiker store in Brasov

    Mitiska REIM sold a property in Brasov to the French DIY retailer Leroy Merlin, which thus continues its expansion plans on the local market.

    The property in Brasov, which was occupied by a Praktiker store, consists of a building of about 7,500 square meters and a land plot of approximately 2 hectares and does not represent an essential asset in the company’s portfolio.

    Mitiska, a Belgian investor specialized in the development and management of retail parks, has 21 operational projects on the local market.

    With a network of 18 stores, Leroy Merlin is one of the largest and most dynamic players in the local DIY market.

    The retailer is present in Brașov through a store located in the northern part of the city.

    This transaction represents the third major sale mandate completed by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox during the pandemic in Romania.

  • IKEA catalogue print edition cancelled after 70 years

    IKEA catalogue print edition cancelled after 70 years

    IKEA says in a statement that this decision came after customer behavior and media consumption have changed, and fewer people read the IKEA Catalogue today than in years past.

    The decision to cut IKEA Catalogue goes hand-in-hand with the ongoing transformation to become more digital and accessible.

    Last year IKEA online retail sales increased by 45% worldwide and the retailer launched new apps for a better experience.

    In 1951, Ingvar Kamprad, IKEA founder put together the first IKEA Catalogue, and the very first catalogue cover featured the MK wing chair in brown upholstery.

    It was printed and distributed in 285,000 copies in the southern part of Sweden, 68 pages. In Swedish.

    In 2000, IKEA launched both a printed and digital version of the catalogue.

    2016 was IKEA Catalogue peak year. It was distributed in 200 million copies, in 69 different versions, 32 languages and to more than 50 markets.