Ioan Popa's path to an over 100m-euro business
Ioan Popa, 52, founder and majority shareholder of Romania's
largest poultry processor, Transavia, has never had partners and
business advisors and says he has never made any compromises.
The ambition to be more than just another player on the market and
the striving to constantly make a profit have been the trump cards
he used in order to build a business he puts at 150 million
euros.
A graduate of the zootechnical and veterinary medicine faculty in
Cluj-Napoca, specialising in poultry rearing technology, Ioan Popa
has been working in the zootechnical field for over 25 years now.
Before setting up his own business, Popa worked for seven years in
the poultry industry, filling various positions, from head of farm
to general manager of the State-held Poultry Plants in Alba and
Sfantu Gheorghe.
However, only one year after the revolution, he moved from employee
to entrepreneur status, and set up Transavia.
"In January 1991 I decided to leave the state-held plant where I
was manager and set out to build a private business. A few months
later, on April 1st 1991, I took part in an auction and acquired a
collective farm on the outskirts of the city of Alba Iulia," he
recalls.
Ioan Popa started his Alba Iulia business, currently a group with
over 1,300 employees and an over 100 million-euro turnover with his
own savings and an over one million-ROL loan.
"In the early 90s, one million RON was an enormous sum, considering
that back then the salary of a general manager was 8,560
ROL."
Over the past four years, the businessman has invested almost 50
million euros in building a slaughterhouse, boosting production
capacities, acquiring Avicola Brasov and Cerealcom Alba Iulia, as
well as in building a ready meals plant. These investments,
especially the acquisition of Avicola Brasov, a deal put at four
million euros, have enabled the businessman to leave his main
competitors behind, and become market leader.