The Competition Council yesterday fined discounter chain Profi and fruit and vegetable supplier Interfruct 4 million euros for fixing shelf prices for the products delivered to the Bucharest stores of the retailer. This is the first penalty incurred by the retail companies on the local market in the last three years. read more...

The DIY market is likely to reach critical mass this year: 100 "construction supplies hypermarkets", operated by the seven large companies on the market that primarily operate on the retail segment. While some players still have tens of million euros to invest, others are speaking about the "imminent" closing of some stores, reads Business Construct magazine. read more...

The purchase of the Italian dairy and juice producer Parmalat by French group Lactalis is likely to propel the French company onto a leading position on the domestic nectar market valued at a little below 40m euros annually and it may also become the owner of a Tunari-based company. read more...

The Competition Council fined three companies, Interfruct, Albinuta Shops and Profi Rom Food with a total fine of 16.7 million lei, about 4 million euro, for fixing selling prices of vegetables and fruits. read more...

For a 50-sqm sweet shop in a town, Easter and Christmas bring half of annual profit. For large shopping centres, Easter and Christmas mean 20-30% added to total turnover. This is the period when business owners spend their entire time in stores and restaurants and people do not think twice before taking money out of their pockets. read more...

Consumer goods, from bread and milk to personal care items, have been the least hurt during recent years, while alcoholic beverages have been the first to go from shopping baskets lately, with almost have of buyers stating in a survey carried out by Nielsen market research company that they gave up these products because of the crisis. read more...

Romanian investment fund Fondul Proprietatea (FP.RO) has asked the Bucharest Court to start insolvency procedures against the World Trade Center in Bucharest. read more...

Over half of retailers active in Romanian malls posted sales increases of up to 30% in 2010, compared to 2009, according to a survey published Tuesday by real estate consultants Colliers. read more...

Sweden's IKEA has been buying furniture from Romanian companies for decades, even before the fall of the communist regime, and this is why it is not surprising that almost 10% of the items of the Băneasa store are "made in Romania". read more...

The domestic drug market advanced by 10% in the first two months of this year, to 1.67bn lei (400m euros), according to the data provided by IMS Health market research firm. read more...

Fashion Retail Group (FRG), the company owned by businessman Octavian Radu, which managed over ten fashion brands with 15.7m-euro turnover in 2009, is set to enter bankruptcy, after lenders approved the start of such proceedings, and Alpha Bank and another 40 creditors have few chances or recouping 9.3m euros. read more...

Nestle Swiss company, the biggest player on the instant coffee market with Nescafe, has teamed up with Georgios Repidonis, one of the shareholders in Lacoste importer in Romania, to open several coffee shops in Bucharest, with the first "halt" in Piaţa Romană, near Burger King restaurant, on the site of former Everest restaurant. read more...

Two copper mining companies, Cuprumin Abrud and Moldomin Moldova Nouă, are put up for sale. The price of a tonne of copper has boomed over the last two years from 2,700 dollars to 10,000 dollars. The value of Romania's copper reserves is estimated at 5-10 billion euros at the current prices. read more...

The Vimetco group, held by Russian businessman Vitali Machitski, will collect 141 million lei (34 million euros at an exchange rate of 4.1 lei/euro) in dividends from aluminium smelter Alro Slatina (ALR), which it controls, with the plant benefiting from cheap energy from Hidroelectrica. read more...

Beer consumption, which last year reached 78 litres per capita, is in line with the European average, with beer as one of the few beverages with which Romanians can keep up with Europeans. read more...

Monica Iavorschi, 37, general manager of home appliances manufacturer Arctic in Găeşti, says we have gone back in time a few years in terms of consumption of home appliances, with demand for semi-automatic washing machines and for refrigerators with basic functions returning. read more...

Romania is the European market with the highest retail market growth in the last ten years, by 123% between 2000 and 2010, with consultants saying the market's potential continues to be one of the biggest, comparable only to that of Bulgaria, Poland and the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania). read more...

Beer industry companies grouped under Romania's Brewers Association have only 10 breweries left on the Romanian market at present, three less than in 2009, which employ around 4,100 people from 6,000 last year. read more...

One week before the launch of H&M in Romania, on the streets, in the underground, in magazines and on TV, the name of the Swedish retailer and the pictures of model Gisele Bundchen, the face of the latest H&M collection, are increasingly present. read more...

Electronics and home appliances retailer Domo Retail, the second-biggest player on the Romanian market in terms of the 2009 turnover, has closed four stores and relocated another this year because they were not profitable. read more...