Romanian online flower retailer expands with franchised traditional shop in Brasov

Romanian online flower shop FlorideLux.ro has opened its first traditional shop in the central Romanian city of Brasov, via franchise, and expects its expansion into franchises to bring 3 percent of the group's turnover. The retailer plans to expand with 50 more shops under franchise by 2015. The next cities to expand are Sibiu and Cluj-Napoca, where reservation contracts have already been signed. The investment in the new flower shop in Brasov, which was opened by two young local entrepreneurs, will reach EUR 45,000 by the end of this year, with EUR 30,000 already invested. The two entrepreneurs from Brasov, Adriana Zeck and Andreea Plăiașu, who left their IT and finance careers to start the flower shop, believe they will recover the investment in the second year of activity. The new flower shop brings together flowers and gifts for various occasions. “We chose Brasov for opening the first offline franchise because it is a developed city, it has a low unemployment rate and a high revenue per inhabitant, and the development of tourism and the clients we have already in the area give us confidence that the region has a high potential,” said Marius Dosinescu, CEO and founder of FlorideLux. The company had received more franchise requests from Brasov than from any other counties, which was also among the reasons for choosing the location. The franchisee is not obliged to buy all its merchandise via FlorideLux and can choose other suppliers for the business, which means for the online shop, the franchise business will not cover a high percentage of the total business. However, “when we will have at least 10 franchises, we will see a higher contribution to the overall business from the franchise side,” according to Dosinescu. The Romanian online flower market represented 2.5 percent of the entire flower market in the country, and in terms of value, some EUR 2.5 million. Dosinescu estimates his company has a 25 percent market share in this niche, which would translate into sales of around EUR 625,000 a year. editor@romania-insider.com