“In 16 years we haven’t shut down any restaurant, a reason why we managed to gain consumers’ confidence,” says the entrepreneur. He entered La Mama business together with Dragos Petrescu, who subsequently exited and now controls City Grill group.
He states the number of visitors rose in 2014, which reflected in the company’s revenue. The advance was a single digit one after in 2013 Trotter Restaurant company that operates the network posted revenue worth RON21.5 million (EUR4.9 million).
“Last year was a little better than the previous one, but we expect revenue growth to top 10% in 2015. We draw up our budget before the VAT cut was announced, so that we do not rely on this move for growth”.
However, the entrepreneur states the government’s decision to cut VAT from 24% to 9% for food and non-alcoholic drinks starting June 1 is one of the best things that could happen in the HoReCa industry.
For 2015, Mahu has not signed any contract for a new restaurant, yet, but states he wants to open new units, with the focus on Bucharest. “I prefer the downtown area and the northern one, I do not want to enter districts”.
The entrepreneur also owned two coffee shops under Cafepedia brand. One of these, located in the area of Eva store of downtown Bucharest, was closed down when the rental contract expired. “We still have the one of Piata Alba Iulia. This is a secondary business we are not interested in developing. The focus will be on restaurants”.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)