Turabo Cafe to double its business in 2008

“The increase in business will come from the opening of a second event center in Bucharest. This will cover 15,000 square meters and have two halls. After this we will open a further seven coffee shops in Romania, and two outside the country,” said Tudor Niculescu, General Manager and owner of Turabo in a statement for Business Standard.

Niculescu said that he will invest some €3.5 million this year to expand the local coffee shop chain, and indicated that the two locations abroad will require an investment of some €700,000. At present, Turabo has 28 locations in Romania.

“We are interested mostly in street locations because this gives us greater freedom in terms of interior design and a social feeling missing in a mall,” Niculescu added.

At the end of last year, Turabo acquired the Dark coffee shop chain for €500,000. At the time Niculescu indicated that he plans to invest a further €500,000 to modernize and rebrand Dark. The owner of Turabo also intends to take over another two coffee shop chains, but did not want to provide any further details about which networks are targeted.

Niculescu believes in the potential of the Romanian coffee shop market. “There is a unique coffee shop concept in Romania, rarely found in the west,” Niculescu said.

Turabo’s main competitors are Starbucks, Gloria Jean's Coffees, both franchises, and Centro. Starbucks recently opened its first shops in Romania, both in Bucharest, and plans to open a third shortly in Cluj-Napoca.