The Eurolines group has budgeted turnover standing at 27 million euros for this year, approximately 8% higher than the value posted last year, stated Dragos Anastasiu, general manager of the company and one of the two stakeholders in the group of firms.
"We plan to achieve growth in the travel and air ticketing markets, as well as to keep turnover derived from passenger transportation by coach unchanged," says Anastasiu.
The group is made up of approximately 16 firms that operate in various fields of activity, from travel agencies, freight and passenger transportation, to car leasing, taxicab and courier services. Eurolines also owns a beauty salon in the capital city, according to the latest information available. Anastasiu specified he planned to boost the number of cities where the company''s services of passenger transportation by coach are available.
The group owns a fleet of 45 coaches and is controlled by two businessmen, Dragos Anastasiu and Cristian Baciucu. The group''s policy for this year will focus on domestic travel and on the introduction of a weekly charter coach trip to Bulgaria.
According to this year''s plans, the network of domestically owned travel agencies is also due to be bolstered. At present, Eurolines has 52 agencies directly and is reselling its packages through another 400 travel agencies.
The company''s representative says he wants to expand the network particularly through franchises. Eurolines also has eight representative offices in Europe, in Germany and Belgium.
"Last year''s major investment targeted the setting up of the group''s own garage (for the car fleet). This year, we will invest in technology, for further automation of all processes (online sales, accounting) and training for all our employees. The idea is that we should be ready for EU integration, mainly in terms of the skilled labour force and automated processes," explains Anastasiu. The company in 2004 also entered the Bucharest taxi market, with a fleet of 20 cars.
Eurolines'' main competitor in the coach travel sector is the Sibiu-based Atlassib group, controlled by the businessman Ilie Carabulea. Carabulea''s company owns a fleet of 150 coaches. andreea.groenendijk@zf.ro
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