Massive investments affected Germanos profit

“The opening of a new store costs some €60,000, for everything except the products. Considering that we are planning to open 70 stores this year, we are talking about a considerable investment,” said Aris Karousos, General Retail Manager of Germanos Telecom Romania, for Business Standard.

The company posted turnover in 2007 of €84.5 million and losses worth €3.5 million, against €1.3 million in profit, according to data available on the Ministry of Finance site.

Karousos believes that the negative effect on profit of the past two years due to investments in very aggressive developments will diminish. “We have now just about finalized our development plan. Next year we intend to continue to open stores, but not as many as this year,” added the company’s Retail Manager.

The Germanos strategy will focus primarily on other services, such as subscriptions offered by Romtelecom (cable TV, fixed telephony and internet) and Cosmote (mobile telephony), which should raise profit.

Karousos expects a return of profit in 2009, although he does not rule out the possibility of a profit comeback this year, depending on development, and due to expectations of major sales at the end of the year.