How five of the leading Romanian entrepreneurs have experienced the crisis

17 mai 2011 Ziarul Financiar

The crisis will end when the average Romanian will live better, when tomorrow will be better.

This statement coming from Dan Şucu, owner of Mobexpert, leader of the furniture market, shows the business world continues to have its reservations after the exit from crisis was announced, even after Ion Ghizdeanu, chairman of the Forecasting Commission, said the commission could go as far as to modify the growth forecast for 2011 from 1.5% to 2%.

Ziarul Financiar yesterday invited five of the most powerful Romanian entrepreneurs - Dragoş Pavăl (Dedeman), Dan Şucu (Mobexpert), Dan Ostahie (Altex), Viorel Cataramă (Elvila) and Raul Ciurtin (Albalact) to talk about how they have experienced the Romanian economic recession. The five's men businesses stand at over EUR 800 million in turnover together and employ several thousand people.

Dan Şucu wonders for instance, how things could be better for the average Romanian who continues to receive bad news, with natural gas and power price increases set to follow, while wages remain unchanged. "How do people respond? They stop buying," says Şucu. In the first three months of this year, Mobexpert recorded a 5% decline, which was partially offset in April.

Dan Ostahie, owner of electronics, home appliances and IT products retailer Altex, says a lot has happened in the past two years. Whereas 2009 and 2010 were years of decline, 2011 will see a slight growth by 8 to 10%. Altex last year posted a EUR195 million turnover, up 7% against 2009.

A bad dream that all Romanian entrepreneurs hoped they would soon wake up from, this is how recession began for Romanian businesses that started from scratch after 1990.

"It was bad because the crisis came after a period of significant growth, and at first we were all hoping recovery would come soon, but it did not happen. We therefore had to become more disciplined, be more mindful of costs and of the strategies we were going to apply," said Raul Ciurtin, chairman and shareholder of Albalact, the biggest producer in the milk industry controlled by Romanian entrepreneurs.

Businessman Viorel Cataramă, who controls the Elvila furniture business, had no ongoing loans with banks when the crisis broke out, which he considers to be among the most important moves of his company. However, the recession prompted the Romanian entrepreneur to lay off 500.

"We have lived under extreme tension during the recession years because we had to strive to make the most of this situation where plots became available and we found it easier to expand. It was important for us to mobilize because you never know how much these circumstances last," says Dragoş Pavăl, chairman and one of the shareholders of DIY retailer Dedeman, leader of the market.