Ahead of the crisis, Timis spoke more about how he wanted to gain market share, about boosting sales and less about profit.
In the meantime, Timis has changed his standpoint.
“For me, sales are not so important. What’s important is to make profit,” the businessman told ZF in an interview.
His new business plan is laid out by the company’s very 2010 figures, when turnover went down slightly, while profit went up by over 1.5 million lei (about EUR360,000) to RON12.8 million. This year, Timis aims for profit of EUR4.7 million.
The company’s profit has improved after Timis made tough decisions during the three years of crisis. He restructured the entire business, gave up dividends in the past two years, laid off almost 150 employees both at the Filipestii de Padure plant and in the logistics unit and decided to put employees on furlough for four days a month at times to slash costs.
However, after having cut costs in the past few years, Timis realized meat products manufactured at the Filipestii de Padure plant could be competitive abroad, as well. This is the strategy Timis wants to pursue in the next years, as he does not have high expectations about the domestic market.
“The three years of crisis were the best as they taught us to be efficient and how to completely restructure our business”.
Cristim has now come to export 150 tons of meat products each month, 12% of total production. The company’s products go to twelve EU countries, as well as to Russia and South Korea.
Timis expects to export 22% of overall production by yearend. He does not see a strong rebound of consumer spending in Romania any time soon, so that he plans to focus on exports in the coming years to secure profit.
He opened 35 stores last year but as soon as he saw some of them were generating losses, he closed them.
This year, Timis is more cautious about expanding his retail network.
“We’ll open a 2,000 square meter supermarket. Investments will amount to EUR1 million,” he said.
On the other hand, Timis decided to diversify his business and invest in a milk cattle farm. His agriculture investments now revolve around several million euros.
The businessman owns a cattle farm and 800 hectares of farming land.