Romanian bakery and pastry chain Ana Pan, owned by the Copos family, will open a new concept shop on Calea Dorobantilor Boulevard in Bucharest in the following month, following an investment of  EUR 130,000, Romania-Insider.com has learned.

The new concept is called Ana Baking Company and it will be more of a café-restaurant which will also serve fresh food to go, Alexandra Copos, CEO of Ana Pan, told Romania-Insider.com. She said she brought this concept from the U.S., where she had lived and studied for ten years before returning to Romania last year to take over the family businesses.

“This concept of café-restaurant has developed a lot in New York. I looked for something that goes very well there, but also for something I like and tried to import a similar concept in Romania,” Alexandra Copos said in an interview for Romania-Insider.com.

This concept takes on the premium market where its main competition will come from the likes of Paul, French Bakery and Chocolat, some of them already present on Calea Dorobantilor.

“I think that the local market is prepared for such a concept. People want to go out more and to socialize, not only in formal restaurants, but in places where they have good food and a relaxed atmosphere. And this is what we are trying to offer them with this new concept,” she explained.

The café will also serve fresh food to go and also targets students at the Ion Luca Caragiale college, which is across the street, as well as people working in offices in the area. It will have an ice cream corner where it will serve gelato made in house, and it will also bake cakes, waffles and bread.

Ana Pan is one of the largest bakery and pastry companies in Romania. The company has 18 selling points and more than 150 employees. It is currently undergoing a restructuring process, after its business declined in recent years. Ana Pan had a turnover of EUR 3.34 million in 2013, down by a quarter compared to 2010.

The company closed five of its own shops, in the beginning of this year, which were either unprofitable or poorly located, but also managed to develop by opening five new selling points, “shop in shop”, located within Mega Image supermarkets.

Alexandra Copos, who took over as CEO of the company in November 2013, says that this year the business is already showing significant recovery. The retail turnover has increased by 5% compared to the same period of 2013, on the number of same shops, while the corporate sales increased by 45%.

Andrei Chirileasa, andrei@romania-insider.com