3Q Aris Karousos, retail chain division director, Germanos and Cosmote Romania

What is the average investment in a Germanos store?

The concept works like this: we get the store ready and give the key to the potential franchisee. The only thing he has to invest in is buying some products and of course paying back part of our investment, but this happens through a franchise fee, in installments. With this fee, and besides products they have to buy, what they get is the store ready, free transportation of goods from the central warehouses to the store, free advertising and free catalogues. The concept is set up in such a way that financially speaking, a small-medium businessperson can afford it. The only requirement that makes a difference is that the franchisee must work inside the store. It is a must. The franchise fee really depends on the area and can start from EUR 500 per month.

Are you considering new acquisitions to expand your footprint?

We did that before we became part of the Cosmote group. Part of our growth was also buying two small networks in 2007 and 2008. Right now, there are no small independent retailers that could be of interest to us. We are perfectly fine with the distribution of our network in the country. Germanos Romania had more than 220 stores nationwide at the end of September. In Bucharest we have 40 stores, in Cluj we have 5, in Iasi 7 and in Timisoara 6. I think 30 percent of our network is in rural areas. For the time being, we do not think it is urgent for us to invest in remodeling the stores. So we do not have this planned in the coming six months. Currently, Germanos has over 1,000 employees.

What are the main revenue-generating units for Germanos?

Mobile telephony and related aspects play the major role. For us, mobile telephony means handsets, services and some other categories such as the repairs center and accessories. The smartphone segment is growing a lot. It is a fresh product category and extremely dynamic. The smartphone explosion in Romania started less than a year ago, so it has a long way to go.

otilia.haraga@business-review.ro