More than a year ago – in early October 2023 – the Ukrainian dollar store chain Aurora opened its first store in Romania, in the city of Suceava. As of December 11, 2024, the chain already had 30 stores in the country.

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In an interview with LIGA.net, co-founder of the network Taras Panasenko spoke about how Aurora works in the foreign market, who its competitors are, and what its plans are for the next year.

Aurora has been working in Romania for a year. Share your results and impressions from working in this country.

Over the year of operation, our stores have been visited by over 1 million guests, 98% of whom are local residents. And these are very good results for a new player on the market that no one had heard of before.

By the way, we are the first system retailer in the history of independent Ukraine to successfully scale in the EU. Developing our business abroad, we support local Romanian manufacturers and, most importantly, manufacturers from Ukraine who export goods for the Aurora chain to Romania.

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Why did Romania become the first country for expansion into Europe? Why not Poland, where many Ukrainian businesses started their operations?

Our company conducted a multi-factor study, which showed that the Romanian market is more favorable and dynamic in development with less competition, compared to Poland. In addition, Romania has a population of about 18 million, which makes it a large market with high solvency. In addition, Romania is very similar in culture and purchasing habits to Ukraine.

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RomaniafranchiseretailAvroraTaras Panasenko