Cluj-Napoca / Bornheim, July 14, 2021. Starting tomorrow, people in Romania’s second-largest city will finally also have direct access to Hornbach’s product range. After twelve months of construction and fittings at the four-hectare site, the company is now opening its eighth location in the country. Including the construction materials drive-in facility, the new DIY store and garden center at the centrally located Bulgaria industrial and commercial estate has sales areas of more than 23,000 square meters*. Hornbach invested Euro 27 million to buy the land and to build and fit out the store and has around 120 employees here.
“Customers in Romania really appreciate our extensive product range and our reliable permanent low-price policy. Hornbach has shown very positive developments here for years now and I am sure that our new store in Cluj-Napoca will continue this success story”, explained Jan Hornbach, Managing Director International and a member of the sixth generation of the family-managed DIY store group, during a tour of the store on Tuesday. “We firmly expect to see further growth in Romania and are already making preparations for a DIY megastore with a garden center in the city of Constanța on the Black Sea coast.”
Increased demand during coronavirus pandemic
Located in the north-west of the country, Cluj-Napoca has been one of Romania’s fastest growing regions for many years now. Given its central location between the main north-south road links, the new Hornbach store is easily accessible for the city’s 330,000 inhabitants, as well as for customers from surrounding areas. “We always had the declared aim of providing customers in Cluj-Napoca too with a Hornbach megastore with state-of-the-art specialist departments, a high-quality product range, and competent advice”, explains Mugurel-Horia Rusu, Country Manager Romania at Hornbach Baumarkt AG. In the course of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for materials for DIY and garden projects has also risen significantly in Romania, where stores were only affected to a lesser extent by restrictions on sales activities. “In particular, the advice we provide has become an even more important factor”, adds Mugurel-Horia Rusu. “Many customers turn to us before tackling their first larger-scale projects in their homes and gardens. At this store, they will find 120 colleagues able to provide them with competent specialist advice and numerous services.”
State-of-the-art specialist departments and numerous services
Just like the other seven locations, the new store offers services including deliveries of goods, installation by craftsmen, cutting timber to size, a sewing service for curtains, and a picture framing service. At the drive-in facility of more than 7,000 square meters, customers can load heavy and bulky building materials directly from the shelves into their own cars or transporters. Further highlights at the new store include a bathroom center with extensive planning services, the picture framing shop, the paint competence center with modern paint mixing services, and the garden division with more than 5,000 square meters including aquaria and pet supplies. Not only that, via their own smartphones or using terminals at the store customers also have access to the online shop at hornbach.ro with its current total of around 70,000 articles. These can be delivered to customers’ homes or free-of-charge to the store.
The Hornbach store in Cluj-Napoca is open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sundays. The drive-in facility already opens at 7 a.m. Mondays to Saturdays.
*Weighted by BHB sector association standard: more than 13,000 square meters
