Romanian hypermarket chain La Cocoș is setting up shop in Brașov, marking its fourth hypermarket nationwide.
The new location, secured through Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, will occupy 10,000 square metres in the Brintex-Brașov shopping complex.
The Brintex shopping complex, recently remodelled after nearly two decades, boasts over 200 fully occupied stores. La Cocoș's arrival will complement the variety of stores and significantly increase footfall, which currently sits at around 5,000 daily visitors.
The company aims to open five additional stores across Romania by 2025.
Last year, La Cocoș became the first independent retailer in Romania to generate RON 1 billion (€200 million) in sales, fuelled by its existing three hypermarkets: two in Ploiesti and one in Bucharest.
La Cocoș
Owned by local entrepreneur Iulian Nica, La Cocoș is a new concept in the Romanian market, offering three price levels depending on the purchased quantity. The stores are spacious and offer around 12,000 SKUs.
The first La Cocoș store opened in Ploiești in 2014. By 2019, with just this single location (measuring 3,950 square metres), the company achieved sales of €54.4 million. Expansion began in November 2020 with a second store, spanning 11,400 square metres, at Bucharest's Vitantis Shopping Centre.
The third outlet, also in Ploiești, opened in November 2023 and holds the title of Romania's largest independent food retail store, boasting a sales area of 13,000 square metres.
Despite rising inflation and declining purchasing power, the food retail sector has shown surprising resilience.
According to the 2023 Romania Retail Snapshot study by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox, hypermarket/supermarket chains experienced a cumulative turnover increase of 18.2% between 2019 and 2022, surpassing inflation rates.
