Do-it-yourself retailer Praktiker posted a profit in 2014, after local operations were taken over by Turkish investor Omer Susli.

“The results were beyond our expectations. We ended 2014 with a 5% growth in business, although the turnover in the first half of the year was 10% lower year-on-year. We recovered in the second half and this brought us a revenue growth of 5%,” Susli told local Wall-street.ro.

Praktiker also returned to profit in 2014, after five years of losses.

This year, the company plans to expand on the local market, two stores being scheduled for opening in the first part of 2015.

Praktiker kept all of its 27 stores last year, but axed 800 of its 2,500 employees.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com