Dedeman Bacau, the largest entrepreneurial company in Romania, held by brothers Adrian and Dragos Paval, posted growth of more than 20% for the fourth year in a row, so its revenue reached RON6.7 billion, the company said. It also celebrated 25 years in business last year and opened the store in Baneasa in a EUR36 million investments, which is the biggest and most expensive in a 48-store network.
Romania is one of the few European countries where the DIY retail market is dominated by a local company, instead of one of the major international retailers like Kingfisher, OBI or Leroy Merlin. Moreover, even though Dedeman only operates in Romania, it is one of the largest businesses in the region. Paval brothers intended to open a store in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova a while ago, but have since shelved plans.
“We set out to achieve a 6% growth in revenue in 2018,” the company officials said. Dedeman could therefore see almost EUR1.5 billion revenue this year because of its new stores and rising sales.
The significant growth Dedeman posted in 2017 came in a year when salaries rose by more than 16% to almost RON2,400 in net amount per month. The rise in Bucharest was 7% to more than RON3,100. Nearly 283,000 employees in Romania make more than EUR1,000 per month, almost double as many as five years ago.
Last year was a boom year in the real estate sector, with 53,301 homes built, 1,095 more than in 2016, according to the National Statistics Institute, and almost 630,000 old and new homes sold. Most of those homes, 82,477, were in Bucharest, 43,774 in Cluj and 41,687 in Ilfov County.
Once having overshot the EUR1 billion mark, Dedeman joined the exclusive club of companies with revenue in the at least ten-digit range. Romania’s economy had 16 companies with more than EUR1 billion revenue in 2016.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)