Data of the “Biggest Players In The Economy” yearbook show that during the two years of recession, which saw the GDP fall 10% and insolvencies become the biggest challenge for Romanian entrepreneurs, a few companies controlled by local businesspeople pursued expansion and gained market share.
Dedeman Bacau doubled its store network, opening 12 stores in the past 30 months, which brought the company’s sales to EUR360 million last year.
Expansion was also behind the doubling of Catena drugstore chains’ sales and of Medlife clinics’ sales.
Constantin Toma, who controls the Romet group in Buzau, is among the few Romanian industrialists who have not faced abrupt sales declines during this time.
The ZF yearbook, at its sixth edition, has been scanning the local economy every year since 2006 and has captured the progression of over 700 companies in years of growth, as well as in times of recession.
The yearbook will be launched Tuesday at the event “Biggest companies in the economy – Companies that beat the crisis. Lessons of the crisis for the next period of economic growth,” organized by ZF in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers at the headquarters of the National Bank.