At least two wellness centers have been completed since the start of the year in Bucharest alone. It is a positive signal and proves owners are again getting a taste of the profits that can be made from a spa, since such a facility can generate operating income from the very first year, and margins go beyond 10%, reads BUSINESS CONSTRUCT.
In Romania, there are around 25 spas “in the true sense of the word,” estimates Liliana Paraipan, who controls Eden Spa.
The company has its own center in the Primaverii neighborhood, with an area of around 350 square meters, a center in Grand Hotel Continental and also operates the spa in the Orhideea Gardens apartment complex. Outside Bucharest, Eden Spa owns a wellness center in the Hilton hotel, Sibiu.
Paraipan reckons some projects were frozen by the crisis, but others were resumed, so that she expects around 15-20 new wellness centers to be opened in the following period.
Besides Eden Spa, Stefan Jianu, owner of Bali Spa centers in Radisson Blu Hotel, Bucharest, and in the town of Cornu, Prahova county, also invested in this industry.
The average size of a spa in Romania is 500-600 square meters, and investments reach EUR1,000-1,500 per square meter, while the staff includes 10 to 20 people.
As a concept, spas target the above-average income group and in recent years their prices have gone up.