Trends. Monday’s analysis. How Romania became a hub for technology centers…

♦ Ahold Delhaize, the owner of the Mega Image supermarket chain, and Hornbach, a DIY retailer, announced in 2024 that they are opening IT centers in Romania ♦ Other big names have already developed such local operations, reaching hundreds of times even over 1,000 people ♦ Romania has around 150,000 people employed in IT, a sector where the average salary is over 11,000 lei net, more than double the average for the economy ♦ However, the earnings vary greatly, depending on the type of activity, the seniority of the people and their expertise.

In recent years, Romania has emerged as a hub for the technology and IT centers of large international companies, from Mega Image, Lidl and Metro to Hornbach, H&M and Estee Lauder, and this despite the fact that 150,000 people are employed on the local market in this sector (information technology service activities) that pays the highest wages in the economy. In all that IT&C means, that is, including the communications area, the number rises to 240,000 employees.

In February, the highest values ​​of the average net salary were registered in information technology service activities (including IT service activities), namely 11,297 lei net, in the context where the average salary in the economy was 4,900 lei, data from the INS show. By comparison, in everything IT&C means, the average monthly net income drops slightly below 10,000 lei.

However, even in IT the salary varies greatly, depending on the type of activity, the seniority of the people and their expertise.

In these technology and IT centers developed by large retailers, for example, implementation, maintenance and even adaptation of domain-specific software activities take place, and this means that companies need from programmers to development specialists. These initiatives are good news for Romania in the context in which the development of the IT field has slowed down. It is very good that I come and that I see Romania as a destination. We are a market with qualified or even overqualified labor for such activities that serve not only the local market, but even regional or European, says Paula Rus, managing partner of the recruitment company Today Workforce.

She estimates that salaries in such centers can be up to 20% lower than those in actual IT, but says that the packages remain attractive to employees who are open to seeing the proposal made by a potential employer. People see these jobs as an opportunity to stay in the field, even if what they do is not as challenging as in software development, for example.

For companies, Romania is an interesting market because here they find, on the one hand, well-trained employees, and on the other, lower salaries than in the West for similar positions.

Ahold Delhaize, owner of the Mega Image supermarket chain, and Hornbach, DIY retailer, announced in 2024 that they are opening IT centers in Romania. Other big names have already developed such local operations, reaching hundreds or even over 1,000 people. Retailers such as Lidl and Metro, but also other companies such as cosmetics manufacturer Este Lauder have made similar moves in Romania.

Est e Lauder Companies, a group active in the perfumery, make-up and skin care market, opened a technology center (global technology center) in Bucharest in 2023. The company announced at the inauguration that it has hired 150 people who will deal with important and global issues such as artificial intelligence, intelligent automation, omnichannel business model and cloud. The group also had such technology-focused offices in Long Island City, New York and in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

IT is one of the most dynamic sectors in the Romanian economy and we will seek to develop the team, Este Lauder officials said last year.

More recently, the giant Ahold Delhaize, the owner of the Mega Image supermarket chain, announced that it is launching a technology hub in Bucharest, where it wants 250 employees. The teams in the new hub will do everything from web and application development to support and initiation of strategic projects in the fields of eCommerce, Infra, Data, Loyalty, Core Retail.

This technology hub will bring together the best IT&C specialists to develop innovations for all our European brands. We chose to invest further on the Romanian market, where we already have a solid presence through our local brand, Mega Image, says Wouter Kolk, CEO of Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia.

The group thus becomes the third big name in the food trade to make such a move, after Metro and Lidl.

But companies from other segments of trade have similar initiatives. Also recently, DIY retailer Hornbach announced an IT hub in Romania. He will initially work on projects related to the online store and will serve the entire German group.

The IT hub in Romania represents an essential pillar in our strategy of internationalization of technological aspects within the company. He will play a crucial role in the development and implementation of innovative technology projects for the entire group, said Andreas Schobert, CTO and member of the management board of Hornbach Baumarkt AG.

The choice of Romania for this project is due, first of all, to the presence of a large number of talents with extensive skills in the IT field, he adds.

The high level of training and expertise in Romania, combined with the affinity for the holistic thinking of technologies, contributed to the choice of this country as the ideal destination for the development of the hub.

And the fashion retailer H&M from Sweden, one of the most important profile actors in the world, established a company in Romania with IT activity. H&M Hennes & Mauritz Ro Services SRL was founded in 2022, in May, and has CAEN (object of activity) 6202 – Consulting activities in information technology.

Last year, H&M officials said it was inactive, but in the group’s 2023 financial report (published in 2024) it is still active, alongside the one that operates retail. They did not want to provide any other details regarding the purpose and reason for the establishment of the company, but other companies that have the same CAEN as the new H&M company are IBM Romania, Amazon Development Center or Pentalog Romania, according to the company analysis platform termene.ro.

Romania is thus attractive for large retail groups – but not only – due to the well-trained workforce and with salaries below the level of the West, even if well above the national average. The companies chosen by ZF have decided to open IT/technology centers locally. There are also some that have service centers, such as HR, accounting or finance, but these were not counted in the analysis.