Founded around two decades ago by Iacob Vladimir (60%) and Marius Selescu (40%), Aramis exports over 90% of its output, according to available data. The Baia Mare producer is supposedly the largest Romanian furniture supplier for IKEA, a piece of information the company’s representatives did not confirm, but did not reject, either.
As it bet on foreign markets and international clients, Aramis expanded and recruited 1,000 people during the crisis. At the opposite end, local furniture producers lost 13,000 employees during the crisis. Romanian furniture plants had 54,600 employees last year, against 67,300 in 2008. On the other hand, overall furniture output topped the 2008 level, reaching EUR2.025 billion in 2013, against EUR1.94 billion ahead of the crisis onset.
Controlled by two Romanian entrepreneurs, Aramis is the furniture company that boasted the fastest growth pace during the crisis years, and moreover, it became the largest Romanian-held exporter in industry, according to Statistics Institute data.
Ioan Floria, the company’s chief financial officer, said in May that recent years’ growth was based on “ongoing investments in production line expansion to the end of attracting new product ranges”.
About 2013, Floria said it was a year of consolidation and for the coming years the company forecasts revenue increases of more than 10%.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)