The company restructured its operations as the figures dropped, but it now expects a 15% growth in turnover for 2011.
“We sweated our way to achieving our targets, but the first quarter was above the first quarter of 2010, so we are keeping the 15% turnover growth target for this year. When I say ‘sweating’ I mean that the construction market did not help us, it continued to slide, so we had to work harder to ensure loyalty of our retailer clients in order to counter the offensive of our competitors,” Ambient chief financial officer Liviu Voicu said.
“Dedeman has opened a store in Cluj, BauMax will be next, Dedeman has announced a store in Baia Mare as well (Ambient has sales centers in Cluj and Baia Mare i.e.), so I can say we are being targeted.”
In 2010, the company posted sales of EUR105 million and had around 1,200 employees, significantly down from the 2008 peak when sales exceeded EUR230 million and Ambient employed 2,500.
“The insolvency option was put on the table but banks did not agree to it,” said Voicu.
The company controlled by Ioan Ciolan has put investments on hold at least until September, the deadline by which it is supposed to restructure its EUR70 million debts it has with seven banks.
BCR, Piraeus and Alpha Bank are the top three creditors, accounting for nearly half the bank exposure on the company, i.e. EUR30 to 35 million.
Other banks, such as BRD and Bancpost, chose to restructure the debts through sale and lease back operations, taking over non-core real estate assets from Ambient and then leasing them back to the company for six to ten years.