iHunt Technology, the Romanian mobile phone and gadget retailer, has opened 340 new brick-and-mortar stores across Bucharest in a single weekend, converting former bakeries, dental offices and at least one cinema into outlets selling phones, chargers and screen protectors. The company described the move as «a direct response to profitability pressure» and confirmed that the expansion will continue until every street corner in the country hosts an iHunt location.
«We have calculated that if we sell enough phones, the pressure on profitability will simply be outnumbered,» said a company operations director, speaking from what was previously a three-screen cinema and is now a showroom for budget smartphones. «Our EBITDA grew nearly fourfold in the first half, and we intend to quadruple the number of stores every quarter until the concept of margin stops being relevant.»
Logistics teams have been working around the clock, rerouting delivery trucks from existing warehouses to the new locations. Staff have been instructed to sleep in shifts behind the counters, and the company has introduced a loyalty program that rewards customers with a free phone for every phone they purchase, a scheme analysts have declined to model mathematically.
By Tuesday morning, the queue outside the former dental office on Calea Victoriei stretched past two metro stations. A company spokesperson confirmed that iHunt has already begun negotiations to acquire the Romanian Post and convert every post office into a phone kiosk by December. «Profitability pressure is a state of mind,» the spokesperson said. «We are simply changing the state.»