November 4 (SeeNews) - Greek toy retailer Jumbo said on Thursday it expects a 'dramatic' drop in sales in Romania in November, of more than 30%, if new tougher coronavirus-induced restrictions remain in place and lead to a full lockdown.
The enforcement of the measures led to an year-on-year decrease of approximately 1.6% in the sales of the stores’ network in October 2021, despite the successful opening of a new Jumbo store in the city of Craiova, the company said in a press release.
During the first ten months of 2021, Jumbo's sales in Romania rose by approximately 17% year-on-year.
As of the last week of October, it is mandatory to show a green health certificate at the entrance of all Jumbo stores in Romania.
According to the company, vaccination coverage in Romania and Bulgaria remains extremely low, with political uncertainty exacerbating the problem.
"Transitional governments in their attempt to face the new Covid wave are imposing extremely strict measures. As a result, today, the sales of the stores in Bulgaria and Romania record a double-digit rate drop," Jumbo noted. "The downward trend is likely to worsen, as the situation in these countries resembles the respective period before the lockdown in Greece and Cyprus during the last 2 months of 2020."
In September, Jumbo announced that it will launch a new store in Craiova, in southern Romania, by the end of this year and that it has bought land for the construction of new units in the country, even though it had to postpone a number of store and warehouse openings due to the Covid-19 crisis. In June, Jumbo announced that it is postponing for 2022 the launch of its Romanian online store planned for this year.
The company operated 80 stores in Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania and two online stores, in Greece and Cyprus, at the end of June 2021.
($=0.8496 euro)