Romania: Carrefour set to open test stores in gas stations
Carrefour Group, active in grocery retail sector, has signed a partnership with Rompetrol Downstream, which operates a network of more than 1,000 filling stations in Romania, to open a number of "test" stores in the gas stations, ZF has found.
If these prove successful, the partnership will be expanded, market sources add. As of press time, representatives of the two parties had not responded to ZF's request for comment on the partnership.
A small number of stores will be opened in Rompetrol stations, and their results will be reviewed over several months before a decision on development is made.
The decision to launch such grocery stores in petrol stations comes a few years after another similar partnership was announced between Auchan and OMV Petrom.
The partnership between the two groups was initiated in 2017 with a pilot phase in which MyAuchan convenience stores were opened in 15 Petrom stations in both urban and rural areas of the country, to test the business model and assess the partnership’s potential.
The two parties then announced that they would extend the agreement to all 400 Petrom petrol stations, with a deadline of 2025.
The development of the partnership with Carrefour comes as Rompetrol officials have stated on several occasions that they want to turn gas stations into utility and service points.
Source: ZFEnglish