“I decided to close the restaurants in Carrefour Orhideea and America House because they were the only ones in the group not making any money, any profit. I let them operate for a while to see if things change for the better but it didn’t happen,” Petrescu said.
The two restaurants will be closed by the end of March, he added.
Carrefour Orhideea and America House are both in very good locations with significant pedestrian traffic in Bucharest. Piata Victoriei is also an area where the biggest names in the business such as McDonald’s, Subway, Spring Time and Gregory’s opened restaurants serving the 15,000 to 20,000 people working in the office buildings there.
Carrefour Orhideea is one of the most popular hypermarkets in Bucharest and also one of the best in terms of sales, with about 30,000 customers every day.
City Grill owns three more restaurants besides the two scheduled for closing, one of which in the Old Town, the most important coffee shop and restaurant area in the city, one in Feeria Shopping Center – the shopping gallery of the Carrefour Hypermarket in Baneasa (northern Bucharest), the best of the chain, and one in Primaverii neighborhood, whose customers are people with above average incomes.
Petrescu said the company plans to open three more restaurants this year, well researched beforehand and therefore he is positive they will make profit.
“We will open a new restaurant in the Old Town on the Gabroveni Street. The contract has already been signed.”
Petrescu said he chose to open another restaurant in the Old Town because this is still the favorite place of the people in Bucharest who go out. He is also one of the first Romanians to have sensed the potential of the Old Town a few years ago, when the area was mostly derelict buildings. He already has a City Grill, two beer restaurants Caru’ cu Bere and Hanu’ Berarilor, as well as a Trattoria Buongiorno specializing in Italian cuisine, in the area.
Petrescu is also in talks to open a restaurant in residential compound Planorama in Colentina (NE Bucharest).
“We have not signed a deal yet and are still in talks. We also have a third restaurant budgeted but have not chosen a location for it yet.”
Planorama is a four building complex with a total of 1,100 apartments. The developer initially announced completion of the EUR70 million investments in 2007 or 2008. As a result of the crisis that hurt the real estate sector, only one building with 280 apartments was completed, according to ZF information.
It will be the first apartment complex where Petrescu opens a restaurant.
Petrescu owns five Trattoria Buongiorno, five City Cafe coffee shops, two Hanu’ Berarilor, five City Grill (including the two restaurants about to be closed) and manages Caru’ cu Bere. They generated gross revenues of EUR20 million in 2012.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)