Iasi-based company ABplus has been organising fairs and exhibitions since 1997. According to the company's owner, Florin Mindirigiu, more than 1 million people have visited these fairs.
ABplus is affiliated with the National Association of Conference and Fair Professional Organisers and with the Association of Fairs and Exhibitions from Romania, being the only professional organiser in the whole Moldavian region.
Florin Mindirigiu, aged 27, says that he entered business from ambition, after having been disappointed in the way a fair of medical products had been organised in Iasi.
"I visited an exhibition organised at the Luceafarul Theatre. I was shocked, as everything was awful. That exhibition didn't have stalls and all the products were a tasteless hotchpotch. I said to myself that I could organise such an event much better and I started work right then," Mindirigiu recollects.
The ABplus owner says he initially invested 600,000 lei renting a surface of a few square metres, positioned at the sixth floor of a building downtown Iasi. "I had worked for several private companies, with no connection to the new field I decided to enter.
I took my overalls, a paint can, two brushes and I started to paint the walls. When I finished cleaning, I brought the telephone from home and I borrowed two desks from some friends of mine. It was quite an interesting experience," Mindirigiu considers.
Three months after the company was established, he organised his first fair and, during the first year of activity, he organised another three fairs.
ABplus organised 12 fairs and three outdoor festivals last year, as compared to only four fairs in 1997. The company's turnover doubled yearly, reaching 2.4 billion lei in 1999 and 5.8 billion lei in 2000. Mindirigiu expects this year's turnover to increase by only 30%. ABplus has 21 employees, of which 16 work in Iasi, two in Galati, two in Sibiu and one in Bucharest.
The fairs and exhibitions organised by ABplus aim at several economic fields: constructions, wood processing and furniture manufacturing industry, IT and communications, medicine and agriculture. ABplus has organised several fairs in Iasi, Sibiu and Galati so far and it is also aiming at Constanta and Timisoara.
Florin Mindirigiu considers that the National Constructions Fair Camex, organised every February, is the most important. A number of 150 such companies exhibited their products on the fifth Camex fair, two months ago, as compared to a mere 18, which attended the first year.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
