Last year, the company recorded turnover of 98.7 million lei, a 12 percent drop over the previous year.
Staer will import in 2009 around 15 percent of its traded products, half the amount last year, from Germany, Denmark, Malaysia, China and Greece. In February this year, Staer opened a showroom in the central city of Brasov and plans to open another four new units in Braila, Targu-Mures, Bacau and Focsani inside retail parks that are currently under construction. The investment amounts to around 2 million euros.
Staer owns a single production unit in the southeastern city of Galati that spreads over 39,000 square meters. The company currently runs 27 shops in most large and middle-sized towns and counts 710 employees in both retail and production. Its main competitors on the local furniture market are Mobexpert, IKEA, Elvila and Kika.
The economic crisis brutally hit the Romanian industry and forced big players in all sectors to either dismiss people or relocate the business. Prospects are grim for the first half of the year when the number of the unemployed is expected to keep growing. However, the optimistic prognosis stresses that starting with the summer the sky will start to clear.
