The appetite for doughnuts, pastry or croissants bought at the corner of the street is constantly growing, and companies going as far as to develop store chains that sell such products stand to gain the most from this demand.
Fornetti Romania company, which sells pastry in various flavours by the kilo, estimates to make approximately 8.7 million euro (354.9 billion ROL) turnover this year, 135 percent higher than last year, when it posted 3.7 million euros (152.7 billion ROL).
The company relies on the expansion of the number of stores through the franchise system: the network currently comprises 268 shops throughout the entire country. The company provides the production equipment and the frozen products.
"The increase in demand led to our opening of a production facility in Timis County in April 2002; a new facility is scheduled to open very soon," the company officials said.
Fornetti Romania in 2003 posted 6.2 billion ROL profit, after having logged losses in the previous years, due to the 2.5 million euro (100 billion ROL) investments made.
Fornetti operates in sixteen European countries, and has production facilities running in seven of them.
Established in 2001, the company in Romania is controlled 56 percent by Hungary-based company Fornetti KFT, which deals in pastry products and milling and bakery.
The first franchised shops in Bucharest were opened about three years ago. The shops are located in good commercial areas: passageways, railway stations, intercity bus stations or crossroads.
Another company to have bet on a growing demand for pastry eaten "on the run" is the doughnut shop chain called "La gogoasa infuriata", a company held by Romanian shareholders, which used the franchising system to develop, as well, but which is still smaller than Fornetti. stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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