“A significant contribution to the 14% growth in the first half came from online sales. Sales of the new furniture collection, designed for slightly smaller apartments, increased at lot, too,” Dan Sucu, Mobexpert owner, said.
“Our attention is now directed to the online segment, which accounts for 16% of our sales. We create certain collections we intend to sell only online because we lack additional space in our stores. The online store is not limited by surface area.”
Mobexpert group sales stood at more than EUR180 million in 2017, its officials say, with production of the Mobexpert plants going to its own retail chain (14 showrooms), 13 partner stores and abroad. The group exports 20% of its production.
Mobexpert plans to invest more than EUR10 million in Constanta, EUR7 million of which in a 10,000 square meter store to be inaugurated in November 2018 and EUR3 million in a 4,000 square meter outlet, due for completion in 2020.
“We are investing EUR10 million in Constanta (…) We hope to inaugurate the 10,000 square meter store in November. We are now in the decorating phase. We will not open any more stores this year. We also bought a hectare of land near the store in Constanta and want to build a 4,000 square meter regional outlet there in a EUR2.5 million to EUR3 million investment, in the next two or three years.”
In 2017, Constanta became the fourth city in Romania where the price of homes went beyond EUR1,000 per square meter, which made the city the new destination of residential developers in the country.
The new apartments create a significant market for furniture retailers and manufacturers, which can grow their sales as the residential marekt expands.
Industrial furniture production in Romania stood at about EUR2.5 billion in 2017, 88% of which exported, Romanian furniture manufacturers association APMR data show.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)