The fair and exhibition industry, which is estimated to be worth over 40m euros, continues to attract a rising number of companies that provide exhibition booth design, construction, sale and rental services.
Dissatisfied with the exhibition services available on the market at the time, Andrei Bondor set up Expo Varadinum in October 1998 together with other investors from Oradea. Bondor started the business in order to achieve the best possible promotion for the group of IT firms he represents. At the age of 35 he started the business, which provides fair and exhibition organisation and booth construction, whilst he was already an entrepreneur at Sintezis Romania, an IT services firm. Noticing the lack of exhibition activities in Oradea, he organised the first consumer goods fair, Expovaradinum, in the same year. The necessary investments and human resources required to launch the business were secured from Sintezis sources. "We invested part of the profit generated by the IT company in Expo Varadinum. For our human resources, we transferred four Sintezis employees and later recruited specialised personnel. We now have 7 employees and part-time collaborators," specified Bondor.
In his new business, Bondor counted on the old partnerships he had sealed and found customers based on the references received from over 3,000 companies he had worked with. Expo Varadinum now has foreign partnerships in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia and Germany.
The company last year generated a turnover worth 250,000 euros, up 30% year-on-year and registered a profit margin of around 20%. In the short and medium term, the manager plans to develop the business by organising more exhibitions and particularly by teaming up with potential investors. In the long term, he wants a stronger involvement with specialised entities.
In 2001, Voicu Sferdianu, another entrepreneur who became aware the exhibition industry was an insufficiently exploited niche, set up Expo Design System, which provides booth design, construction, sale and rental services.
Before starting the business, he was a manager at the Fair and Exhibition Department of the Chamber of Commerce in Arad. He started the business at the age of 29 without any previous experience in running a private business. At present, the company has 30 full-time employees in its headquarters in Arad and Bucharest, and has over 50 collaborators during busy periods.
According to Sferdianu, the initial invested sum was not large, but gradually brought big profits that allowed the company to invest in logistics equipment.
In 2006, the company registered a turnover worth 650,000 euros, up 114% year-on-year, and a profit margin of 10%. The company's manager forecasts an over 50% growth in turnover for 2007. Sferdianu says he also plans to expand onto the markets of two neighbouring countries after he has first strengthened his business in Romania.
The business in brief
Initial investments are made to acquire materials, modular systems for the construction of booths and in logistics
The value of construction for a hall for fairs and exhibitions can reach 800,000 euros
Revenues are generated from rents, advertising, exhibition catalogues and the organisation of collateral events
Profit margins range between 10-20%, while turnovers exceed 600,000 euros
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