Bucharest, May 12, 2008 – Praktiker Romania, the leader of the Romanian do-it-yourself market, will take next month the start in the process of extension of this year. The first store the company will open in 2008 will be located in Deva, its opening being scheduled for the first week of June. End of the same month the second store will be also opened, in Pitesti. For Praktiker Deva the company invested about EUR 8.5 million and for the shop in Pitesti about EUR 12 million.

  

„This year we will go on with the process of building our position as the leader of the do-it-yourself market” states Guenter Vosskaemper, General Manager of Praktiker Romania. „In the 6 years since we have started our activity, our store network extended very fast and now we are in a point were we can speak about a strengthening of our position at the regional level. With the two stores we will open next month we provide ourselves in 2008 with a start worthy of our evolvement up till now”.

  

Praktiker Deva will have a sale area of about 4,300 sqm, it being the second store with this dimension after Praktiker Targoviste, opened last year. The store in Pitesti will be located near the exit from the Bucharest-Pitesti motor way and its sale area will be of about 8,200 sqm.

  

With the opening of the two stores, Praktiker Romania will run to 22 stores in whole, and the network sale area will exceed 140,000 sqm. The company is now present in 17 towns, located in all the country’s regions: Bucharest (where it owns 3 shops), Cluj-Napoca, Ploiesti, Timisoara (with two shops), Brasov, Bacau, Oradea, Constanta, Craiova, Arad, Tirgu-Mures, Satu Mare, Braila, Baia Mare, Galati, Targoviste and Iasi.

 

For 2008, Praktiker Romania plans to finish more than 5 store projects. In the following 2-3 year interval the company’s network will extend to over 30 stores ant it will cover all the towns in this country with more than 120,000 inhabitants. With the projects in Deva and Pitesti the total of the investments made by Praktiker Romania, from the start of its activity up till now, will exceed the amount of EUR 200 million.

  

For the first quarter of the year 2008, the company reported EUR 53.4 million in sales. The team of Praktiker Romania currently consists of 2,400 people, to whom other 200 will be added with the opening of the two stores.