"There’s shortage of people": Bulgarian retail is looking for staff abroad and is also digitizing

The demographic crisis is a deep process that began in 1961 when the last natural population increase in Bulgaria was recorded. Since 1984, there has only been negative population growth in the country, worsened by the outward emigration of millions of people seeking a new life in Western Europe and the USA.

As a result, today the shortage of qualified personnel in Bulgaria is visible everywhere. The retail sector is no exception - specifically in customer service jobs.

There’s a shortage of people," summed up the situation Andrey Evtimov, the executive director of Doverie Brico, the national operator of the Mr. Bricolage chain.

According to data from the Association for Modern Trade, which unites some of the largest food and non-food retail chains in Bulgaria, the retail sector in the country is the second largest employer in the country and in the top 3 with the most open positions at the moment.

In an attempt to fill their vacant positions, these enterprises began to import staff from countries such as Uzbekistan, Pakistan and others. Because of the language barrier, however, these workers fill positions that do not require contact with customers – such as warehouse positions.

Retail is developing intensively. New and new stores open every year, and they need people to work in them," explained Evtimov.

He sees several other solutions at the moment. One is reaching out to the specific group of young people that neither study nor work; another is better integration of the Roma minority in cities such as Sliven and Plovdiv. The retail chains have also concluded hiring contracts with schools and universities.

The main way retail deals with the lack of personnel, however, is digitalization and the implementation of innovations. Self-service checkouts are such an example that the CEO of Kaufland, Ivan Chernev, says they will continue to develop.

Technology gives us the opportunity to continue investing, and to open new stores," he explains.

Similarly, Doverie Brico invests in digital labels on the shelves so that there will be no need to have a person change them manually.

At the opening of our first store in Sofia in 2000, we had no problem with personnel - we had several candidates for each position. 40% of salespeople had a university degree. Now this is not the reality anymore," Evtimov points out.

Ivan Chernev adds that his chain needs 200 new employees in its 16 stores in Sofia alone.

Translated by Tzvetozar Vincent Iolov