Mobexpert, the largest furniture retailer in Romania, will focus its investments for this year on logistics and services, according to Dan Viorel Sucu, company chairman and majority stakeholder.
"Sales rose above expectations last year and we feel it's necessary for us to invest more in the quality of services. This means speedier delivery to customers, higher investment in the training of fitting teams and better post-delivery services," said Sucu.
Mobexpert has purchased land on the Bucharest ring road where it intends to build a furniture warehouse of 10,000 square metres that will serve the company's stores around the country as well as the store to be opened in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
"The warehouse will function as a cross-docking system, that is it will centralise the furniture from all the group's factories before it is subsequently delivered to the stores. In this way, we will be better able to respond to requests from stores since the warehouse enables a much higher volume of furniture to be stored. This will also mean we will be able to improve the services offered to final buyers. The warehouse will be completed by this September, the investment for the warehouse being around 3.5 to 4 million euros," explained Sucu.
Having reached maturity on the Romanian market after investing heavily in expansion, domestic companies are increasingly looking to invest in logistics and to regional expansion.
Mobexpert owns three large furniture stores in Bucharest, in which it has invested around 30 million euros. It also has 21 stores outside Bucharest. Last year, Mobexpert's sales in euros rose 38%, beating the 35% target set at the beginning of the year. Sucu refused to specify the value of the sales.
"The beginning of 2004 was weaker, but in the second half of the year we caught up and even exceeded expectations. In Bucharest, sales of home furniture increased by 52% compared with 2003, which was in line with expectations, while Mobexpert Office, our office furniture unit, saw an increase of 18%, which was higher than the initial target of 10%," said Sucu.
The increase in sales in Bucharest was also due to the opening in 2003 of a further two Mobexpert stores in the Militari and Pantelimon districts of the city. Domestic production accounts for around 75% of the sales value, with imports accounting for the rest.
Sucu explained that the company's marketing policy would be concentrated on products and customer orientation.
Another Mobexpert project for this year is the construction of a new store in Brasov.
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
