Arabesque, the largest construction materials distributor on themarket, has budgeted investments worth 20 million euros for thisyear to build two new storage facilities, after last year itallocated 24 million euros for the opening of three centres inOradea, Baia Mare, and Pitesti.
The company did not specify the locations of the future centres,but the new investments will bring the number of Arabesqueshowrooms to 20.
Arabesque expects a similar turnover in 2010 as that recorded in2009, when the business contracted by 25%, to 412 million euros.Arabesque's turnover has again fallen below the half a billion-eurothreshold, which it managed to exceed in 2008, when it posted 550million euros in business. "For 2010 we target the same turnover asin 2009, expecting a potential decline in the first half of theyear and a slight recovery in the second half. "The 2010progression will depend very much on the European economic context,on the political stability in Romania, the relaunch of lending, theprogression of the exchange rate, and on the governments' measuresto relaunch the economy," says Cezar Rapotan, owner and generalmanager of Arabesque.
However, the company will halt its expansion abroad, where italready has 22 subsidiaries in the Republic of Moldova, Bulgaria,Ukraine, and Serbia, which generate 18-20% of the overall business,i.e. around 80 million euros.
Rapotan believes the state needs to intensify its investmentprogrammes and that any initiative of the "First Home" type iswelcome as long as it is an incentive to investments. "The 'FirstHome' scheme should only target newly-built homes completed in2009-2010."
Last year, the company fully felt the decline in investments onthe construction market and had to resort to major spendingcuts.
The abrupt decline in new investments and the rise in the shareof renovation works were also reflected in the structure ofArabesque's sales. The best-selling construction materials in 2009were those used in renovations, such as paint, plaster,polystyrene, while materials used for new construction projectssold less well: cement, bricks, ACC.
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