Romanian furniture producer StratusMob, owned by businessman Nicolae Ratiu, expects to sell furniture and wooden panels worth some EUR 3.5 million this year, similarly to last year, according to Carol Szabo, the company's manager. With a profit rate of two to three percent, the company manages to make most of its sales from a simple wooden panel product, that it mostly exports, as furniture sales in Romania have declined.

“On the furniture segment, we're making a loss. Furniture sales dropped by 80 percent, while sales of the wooden panels grew by 50 percent,” said Szabo. Consequently, most of its 300 employee work for producing the wooden panels.The product is more profitable than the furniture and also makes around 90 percent of the company's sales. StarusMob expects the local furniture market to revive in two years, according to Szabo.

Most of the company's sales come from exports to countries like Hungary, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Italy.The StratusMob factory in Blaj, Alba county, was set up in 1960. It became a private company in 1998 and in 2008, it was taken over fully by investor Nicolae Ratiu.

Nicolae Ratiu, the son of Romanian politician Ion Ratiu, owns several real estate businesses in Romania, among which the Carol Park residential project in Bucharest, several industrial parks across the country, the resort Satul Prunilor close to Prahovei valley, as well as the printing house RH Printing. He is involved in several non-governmental projects, such as the Pro Patrimonio foundation, the Ratiu Family Foundation and Transilvania Fest.

Corina Saceanu, corina@romania-insider.com

(Photo credits: Corina Saceanu/Romania-insider.com