Dan Sucu says he expects Mobexpert sales of furniture and decor to go up by at least 15% in 2016, because of the higher purchasing power of Romanians, who earn higher wages, can buy cheaper products, have lower loan costs and can transfer the savings to the secondary needs like replacing furniture because the VAT cuts in the past year.
“A 12.5% increase on the furniture retail segment is very good, we haven’t seen such a thing since 2007. We had hoped for 12% growth but actually budgeted 8%. Last year was very good, especially in the last few months.”
Traffic in Mobexpert stores increased by 30% and keeps rising, considering the overall VAT drop from 24% to 20% as of January 1, 2016, which made customers that had not previously considered buying furniture from Mobexpert stores reconsider.
“The VAT drop was felt early in the year. People who might not have considered Mobexpert as a place to get furniture for their homes before are now buying from us.”
Dan Sucu estimates his group’s revenue reached more than EUR125 million in 2015. The group posted 540 million lei (EUR122 million) revenue in 2014, according to the latest information available to ZF.
The entrepreneur expects the overall furniture and décor retail to increase by at least 10% this year from the about EUR700 million at the moment.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)