“Kaufland’s strategy is to be actively involved in the community in the following directions: social issues, health, education, sport, environmental protection and support of Romanian producers.”
VALER HANCAȘ
CORPORATE AFFAIRS & COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR, KAUFLAND ROMÂNIA & MOLDOVA
PERSONAL INFO
A professional economist, enthusiastic with figures and a humorous orator, Valer Hancaş has over 20 years of experience in international retail companies.
Over the years, he has held various management positions in the Sales, Purchasing, or Marketing Departments. He is currently Corporate Affairs Director at Kaufland Romania. From this position, Valer coordinates all the external and internal communication, including CSR, sustainability and Public Affairs activity.
Since Kaufland’s strategy is to be actively involved in the community in the following directions: social issues, health, education, sport, environmental protection and support of Romanian producers, Valer Hancaş sustains and promotes internally and externally the CSR & projects and sustainability of the company, but not only.
Moreover, since July 2017, Valer Hancaș is the Vice President of the Global Compact Network Romania Steering Committee. At present Valer Hancaș is also the President of IAA Romania, the Vice President the Association of the Great Commercial Networks in Romania, and since January 2021 Valer is involved in the general management of the Economic and Social Council.
Valer has been a key note speaker in numerous conferences, both national and international, captivating the audiences each time with his open, honest and humourous style.
As a true artizan of communication, Valer implemented successfully ample communication campaigns which included PR, CSR and Sustainability for Kaufland. Let us just enumerate a few: the re-branding of Kaufland, the launch of the Pop-Up Restaurant, the launch of the Kaufland private labels: K-Bio, K-Take and Veggie, the program „Romanian Shelf” – which promoted extensive presence of Romanian porc meat in supermarkets, part of the initiative to continuously support the local Romanian producers. Moreover, he lead the projects for wich Kaufland is recognized as a pioneer for sustainability in Romania: the first public electric cars charging network, the first sustainability report of the company, in 2017, using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, the first RVMs, waste collective infrastructure, the first retailer to collect empty hygiene and cleaning product bottles in Romania, the first regenerative farm and many more.
Maybe one of the bravest marketing and communication campaign led by Valer was the one which raised awareness and responsibility towards the exessive usage of plastic bags in Romania. Under the headline „Excessive plastic bags consumption is damaging to communities”, the campaign had an extraordinary impact, changing the behaviour of the Romanian population.