Aurel Kober: I won't sell the business

Kober, the Piatra-Neamt-based varnish and paint manufacturer, one of the top two players on the market, has large-scale plans to expand its operations and aims to achieve a 30% market share within the next two years, compared with its present share of 15-20%, writes Business Construct, the magazine distributed today with ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
Aurel Kober, the founder and owner of Kober, whose business is estimated to be worth 40 million euros this year, believes the paint and varnish market is highly competitive due to the huge investments being made by companies in this field.
Although he has owned the business since 1991, Aurel Kober does not intend to invest in any other industries or sell his company. “I am not interested in investing in other fields, only in the development of the Kober product range and in the development of the market in order to achieve an around 30% market share. We will be able to gain more than 30% just through acquisitions,” Kober says, who owns around 95% of the business while his wife, Mariana Kober, owns the remaining 5%.
The company has caught the eye of a number of European investment funds and major paint and varnish producers over the last few years. “We have had talks with some investment funds and manufacturers, but if I am to be interested in this, I want to go about it on an equal footing. For the time being, I have no interest in selling,” says Kober’s founder.
The company was established in 1991 by Aurel Kober, who had previously worked as an engineer for Severnav and was one the first private companies on the market of paints and varnishes.
Kober derived 21 million euros in turnover in the first half of the year, an increase of 24% compared with last year, due to the good weather in the first part of the year and high demand for construction materials.
The company made 1.8 million-euro net profit for the first six months, the same as in the first half of 2006. “We estimate a 20% increase in turnover for this year, due to investments on the residential market and to the high number of thermal rehabilitation projects, which has increased this year and will continue to increase over the next few years,” Kober explains. Thus Kober’s turnover will reach about 40 million euros this year, with the company planning to boost exports, which currently account for about 7% of its turnover. Its main export market is Hungary.
In addition, the company will develop the industrial and marine paint sector over the coming years. It is the only manufacturer of paint for shipbuilding in Romania.
“More than 90% of our marine products are exported and we have contracts signed with ship owners and ship builders. We also account for 30% of the domestic market on this segment,” Kober says. The shipbuilding market is constantly increasing, and the main shipyards in Romania receive orders in the range of hundreds of millions of euros.
Kober is now carrying out an investment worth 10-12 million euros to build a paint and varnish factory in Savinesti, with an annual production rate of more than 120,000 tonnes each year.