Relocation to cost Mobexpert 28 million euro

Mobexpert, Romania’s largest furniture producer, will spend the next year relocating its four furniture factories from Targu Mures. Of the €28 million project, €10 million will be invested in field preparation, construction work and infrastructure, and the remainder in equipment acquisition and modern technology.

The group’s four factories, ConfoMex, StudioMex, IleforMex, MuresMex and the logistics platform will be moved 15 km outside Targu Mures, to a new industrial park, in which the company owns 100,000 square meters.

“The decision was made in order to be able to insure an increase in production and to maintain high quality standards. We estimate productivity will increase by more than half by 2011, on the basis of a some 50 percent increase in production at the four factories,” said Mobexpert’s President, Dan Sucu.  “Since physical expansion was essential, and the necessary space was not available, a greenfield investment was preferred,” Marketing Manager Marcela Moss told Business Standard.

With €150 million in net sales in 2006, Mobexpert is market leader in the Romanian furniture producing industry, on a market estimated at €1.1 billion.

For 2007, Sucu expects a 15 percent increase in net sales, up to €173 million, even though in the first quarter of this year Mobexpert registered a 40 percent surge in net sales of office furniture, and a 38 percent rise of home furnishing and decorations, according to Marcela Moss.

Exports amount to some €35-40 million of the total production, and main foreign markets are France, Germany and the Netherlands. Mobexpert’s network has four stores in Bucharest, and another 28 throughout the country. This year, the company will invest €4-5 million in a new unit outside the country in Sofia (Bulgaria).   Company officials told Business Standard that Mobexpert’s strategy does not include any other production unit relocations in the near future and no personnel cuts are foreseen.

Romanians spend €45.2 a year/per capita on furniture, while Western Europeans spend 4-5 times more, according to the Romanian Furniture Manufacturers Association (APMR).