After 17 years in which he gave up two businesses, sealed twodeals and developed Macromex to turnover worth 120m euros, DanMinulescu says he will bet everything on a single card in thefollowing years: frozen products distribution.
Minulescu, 42, developed from scratch the biggest distributor offrozen products, which last year reached 120m-euro turnover with500 employees in Romania and another 30 in the CzechRepublic.
In the first two years, Macromex's business was very simple, likemost businesses in the early '90s. Initial investments stood atonly 2,000 dollars, borrowed from friends as freight transportvehicles were rented.
In 2005, Macromex opened the first sales points in the country andthen further developed counting on the same segment, which canstill be considered a market niche: distribution at refrigeratedgoods. Minulescu says his best years as an entrepreneur were due toRomania's EU integration.
After 2007, the company followed two directions to develop itsoperations beyond Romanian borders: it started deliveries toclients on other markets and set up the first foreign subsidiary,in the Czech Republic. "2007 was our best year, in terms ofprofitability. The performance we reached then is still helping usnow, when the market looks bad," Minulescu adds.
Instead, the toughest period for him was 1999, when the company wasseriously hurt by RON decline and rising borrowing costs. Problemsprompted Minulescu to start discussions, for the first time, withan investor interested in taking over Macromex. He says he does notregret not having attracted a financial investor in the companybecause under the control of a financial investor the company'sflexibility would have been hurt. "(...) We're a sound company andwe can raise more resources from banks than we need," Minulescustates.
Instead, he sealed two deals with two large companies, withinternational operations.
Minulescu says he does not plan to invest in production again andadmits he made a mistake when he decided to enter the charcuteriemarket with Cominca company. "In our case, business diversificationwas not a good strategy".
He reckons 2009 is year when cost control is more important thanever. Dan Minulescu speaks about the development of new businesses,too. For Macromex, new businesses mean the development of thedistributed product portfolio by entering new categories. Minulescusays he will support the development of these businesses byinvestments in a distribution centre in Transylvania, to be openedin 2011.
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