Florentin Banu, developer of the Joe wafer brand and supermarket chain Artima, has announced he is expanding to the automotive business.
"It will be a joint-venture with a German company. We established Banuinvest last year, and the automotive parts factory is an investment made by Banuinvest," specified Banu, though he gave no details as to the value of the investment.
Besides the automotive parts factory, Banuinvest is also investing in a sports centre in Timisoara, which includes a tennis court, a football field and an aerobics and fitness studio.
"Banuinvest will act as an investment fund, looking to get involved in start-ups in the automotive sector, the manufacturing business or in real estate," Banu added.
Until now, his most important investment has been the Artima supermarket chain.
"We managed to cross the break-even point, coming into the black in June. It was even sooner than I had anticipated: whereas we only expected to break even this year, as specified in the business plan, we will actually make some profit, after all," Banu declared.
The Artima chain currently has 12 stores, with two more scheduled for opening by the end of the year.
"Artima will make a 28 million euro full-year turnover, and the network will reach maturity in terms of expansion," Banu added.
Data available on the Finance Ministry website show Artima made 16.4 million euros in turnover last year, against 0.7 million euros in losses.
Since starting the supermarket chain in 2001, Banu has stated he would not rule out a sale to a strategic investor later on, as he did with his first business in Romania, the Joe wafer brand.
Back in 1994, Florentin Banu, together with his brother and two partners, formed the sweet producer Joe International Business Company. The company grew year on year, achieving a turnover of 12 million euros in 2000 and 65% of the Romanian wafer market from sales of 12,000 tonnes a year.
At the end of 2000, the Nestle group bought out Banu's share in Joe IBC in a deal whose value was never revealed, but which was estimated at several million dollars. Banu and his brother invested the money from the sale of Joe IBC into opening the Artima supermarket chain, a business based on opening supermarkets in the medium-sized cities of Transilvania.
Artima is not the only supermarket chain to have been developed by a Romanian investor. The GFS Group owns five supermarkets in Sibiu, Suceava, Targu-Mures, Iasi and Constanta, and will generate 1,200bn ROL in turnover this year, according to estimates by its own officials.
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