She says she is working with 30 to 40 Romanian suppliers at the moment and wants local plants to gradually replace the Chinese suppliers.
“We get our raw materials from Italy, China, and Romania mainly. About 20% of the necessary raw materials come from Romanian companies and we want to boost that share to 50%,” the entrepreneur says.
“The local market is competitive. Even though the price paid is higher, the products are better. Moreover, we save on transportation and inventory costs this way.”
Doina Cepalis says the development of the relations with local suppliers not only helps her business but also the local economy, which still has room for growth. She is therefore trying to find companies mostly in Moldavia, where the Te-Rox group is based.
The group comprises four companies, the largest of which are Te-Rox Prod and My Plast Investments, has five plants and about 1,100 employees and posted more than 120 million lei (EUR27 million) revenue last year.
“We now have five plants of our own but demand is higher than our capacity to meet it. There are two important fairs for our industry, one in Cologne this fall and one in Hong Kong in January. We want to see the market trends in Germany in the fall and then decide about expansion. We are thinking of building a sixth factory in a greenfield investment, not buy it.”
Te-Rox products reach customers in 50 countries, Cepalis says.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)