“We’ve made progress with the hotel business. Two are already ‘crystallized’ in Sibiu and Bucharest. They will be four-star, four star plus hotels, five stars are out of the question because this is where business is,” Michael Schmidt said.
The businessman says he has discussed with a number of hotel chains and has three options: operate alone, operate with a brand or just build the hotels and rent them out. No decision has been made yet.
The businessman announced his plans to go into the hospitality business last fall. The company has seven plots of land it bought in Romania in 2007-2008 in order to expand the truck sales network to Oradea, Craiova, Sibiu, Constanta and Otopeni. Hotels are a more than 3.6 billion lei (EUR797 million) business a year in Romania. Bucharest alone accounts for one third of the entire revenue.
As for the auto business, the group seeks to expand with the Rolls-Royce brand, as the British carmaker is due to launch the second generation of Phantom, a car that can easily cost EUR600,000. Moreover, next year should see the ‘Cullinan’ project, Rolls-Royce’s first SUV ever, for which the carmaker is already taking reservations from customers worldwide.
“We have discussed with Rolls-Royce for the neighboring countries – Serbia, Hungary, Montenegro and so on, too, so we could serve them. We will attend the auto show in Belgrade in March. We are also organizing Rolls-Royce test drive events in partnership with the brand,” Michael Schmidt said.
The businessman says that he will enter the second hand market of the brand in Germany and in Romania this year.
“The second-hand department has developed well at Rolls-Royce and now we have a specialized employee, who knows the market very well. We now have the solution and support of the carmaker so we may see sales of five to ten Rolls-Royce cars both new and used in Romania.”
No new Rolls-Royce was registered in Romania last year and only one was registered in 2015. On the other hand, 17 used Rolls-Royce cars were imported in 2016. In all, 128 Rolls-Royce cars are registered in this country, 20 of which Phantoms.
Rolls-Royce operates in Romania via a service facility Automobile Bavaria has in Baneasa (northern Bucharest). Michael Schmidt also owns the Rolls-Royce dealer in Munich, which delivered 44 cars last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)