“We ended last year with 4.361 billion (EUR967 million) sales,” says Dragos Paval, the chairman of the company and also its co-founder and co-owner together with his brother Adrian Paval.
The revenue of the company makes its owners the most important local entrepreneurs, followed by Augustin Oancea (Tinmar Ind – energy) and Zoltan Teszari (RCS&RDS – telecom).
The Paval brothers started their business in the early nineties, with Dedeman growing to take the lead on the DIY retail market in 2010, a position it has not lost ever since. The constant expansion of the Dedeman network took its sales from less than RON400 million in 2006 to more than RON4.3 billion last year. Moreover, Dedeman’s sales quadrupled during the crisis, while most of the DIY businesses suffered.
Its rivals on the about EUR2 billion DIY retail market are international chains such as Brico Depot and Leroy Merlin and local companies Ambient (now insolvent) and Arabesque.
The Pavals’ plans will not stop here, though.
“We finally got the construction permit for our store by the DN1 (national road 1) near Ikea after two years. We’ll begin construction next week,’ Dragos Paval says.
The Pavals plan to first build a store on the site and then an office building, which they will rent, the Dedeman official says, thus confirming intent to expand into office space development. This will not be Dedeman’s only office building, Dragos Paval added.
Dedeman also has two stores under construction at the moment besides the store near Ikea. The retailer has 42 stores at the moment. (EUR1=RON4.5114)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)