“We have successfully grown on market niches that were almost non-existent prior to 2008. We’ve had significant growth in our outdoor business (outdoor furniture i.e.). We wanted to grow 50% and grew 48%,” Dan Sucu told ZF in an interview. “We’re still selling some outdoor [furniture] even now in October, but the segment has reached maturity, too. We are betting on something else.”
Sales of outdoor furniture turned the really slow April-July period into a time of average sales figures, Sucu said.
Mobexpert Group posted 6% increase in sales in the first nine months of the year driven by the stores outside Bucharest. The performance of those stores outside the capital city is “slightly different and somewhat unexpected” as Sucu puts it, who explains that in 2009, the first year of crisis, the decline in sales was not the same across all stores, and now they are offsetting it.
“The repositioning of 2009 was different according to city and led to significant declines in some of them by more than 40% to 50% at times. On the other hand, certain areas (stores i.e.), like Baneasa (northern Bucharest), posted growth. This year we’ve noticed that the stores, which lost the highest amount of revenue in 2009 caught up in 2012. We found substantial growth of 20% to 25% in stores in Brasov, Sibiu and Suceava (central and northern Romania),” Sucu said.
Now that he may say he won the bet on outdoor furniture, the businessman is looking at sofas, carpets and mattresses for growth in the near future. Christmas decorations are also considered, too.
“I would like to double the revenue on the carpet segment over the next two years. The next bet after carpets would be sofas,” Sucu added.
The group has two sofa plants in Bucharest (sofas made to order) and in Targu Mures (central Romania, which makes regular sofas).
Sales of mattresses have gone up 48% since the beginning of the year and the Mobexpert owner is in talks with “an US brand” to manufacture its products in the Soft Mex plant for the markets in the region. He did not disclose the name of the US company, though.
The Mobexpert group has nine plants in four production centers in Bucharest, Dej, Targu Mures and Suceava as well as 31 stores and hypermarkets.
More than 60% of the furniture (accessories not included) sold in Romania is made locally.
“(…) the capability to manufacture in Romania is an advantage to my company and will remain so even though manufacturing is now like some sort of adventure and no longer something safe,” Sucu said.
The businessman added he was not interested in opening new stores but in concentrating on the development of those already operational so as to see decorations generated 20% to 30% of the sales of each store.
Dan Sucu does not want exports to exceed 20% of the total production. “We strongly believe that doing our job well at home is more important than doing it 3,000 kilometers away from home. We kept exporting, sometimes at a loss, for a good yield of our plants and the demanding export standards in terms of materials and workmanship, which benefit the entire manufacturing operation.”
Mobexpert posted EUR114 million revenue in 2011. Its owner estimates the furniture market to amount to EUR600 million to EUR700 million, with sales continuing to decline this year. Mobexpert’s rivals on this market include IKEA, Elvila, kika, Lemet, Casa Rusu.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)