This year Diverta, a company owned by local businessman Octavian Radu, has closed down another seven small stores and opened five new ones, according to the latest data available.
Representatives of the company confirmed the information, but did not offer an official explanation. The Diverta store closed down less than a month after rival chain Carturesti opened a bookstore in AFI Palace Cotroceni.
Diverta officials said there was no connection between the two events, with the decision to close down Diverta preceding the decision to open Carturesti.
Pro Express Retail, the company that manages Diverta bookstores, went insolvent last year, ending the year with a EUR22 million turnover, down 26% on 2009) and losses of over EUR5.6 million (which compared with EUR4.36 million the previous year). The company had 257 employees at the end of last year, almost 300 fewer than in 2009.
Set up by businessman Octavian Radu in 1990, the RTC group includes companies grouped together in several divisions, with last year seeing a courier company and a company under which Diverta bookstores were registered, go insolvent.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)