CrisTim owner goes into real estate business

Businessman Radu Timis, chairman of the largest producer in the cold cuts industry, will go into the real estate business next year by building several blocks of flats in Bucharest.
“We will almost certainly enter the real estate market next year, because almost 90% of the investments we set out to make in our cold cuts factory will be completed this year. We have some plots of land in Bucharest where we will build studios and two or three-room apartments,” Radu Timis, the group’s chairman told ZIARUL FINANCIAR.
He did not provide further details on the project, merely saying that he would outline the strategy for development in the real estate business next year.
“We have several plots of land in various areas across Bucharest, which are not that large, just a few thousand square metres. These are plots of land that we knew when to buy; we are small players on this segment, anyway,” Timis added. He says the focus of the company he runs will remain on the cold cuts industry. Radu Timis, 45, built one of the best-known Romanian food brands in ten years. The turnover of the CrisTim group exceeded 150 million euros last year.
Timis has received a number of offers to sell from investment funds and companies in the processing industry in Austria, the Netherlands and Germany over the last few years, but turned these offers down. CrisTim’s chairman says he built this business for at least three generations.
The CrisTim group includes a construction company and two farms besides the cold cuts business.
The construction company has approximately 400 employees, who have until now worked for other companies of the group.
“Half of the employees will probably continue to build for the companies in the group, while the other half will do outsourcing. We have to get used to working for others, too. We’ve got offers for residential construction work from Germany and Spain. We’ll see if we should say yes, depending on the opportunities,” he added.
The businessman went on to say he would go into the residential segment, because there is a niche on the domestic market, in particular for cheaper apartments.
“I believe this is an opportunity at the moment. We will not resort to partnerships, we will build them ourselves and then sell,” Timis concluded. Radu Timis’s move comes after other entrepreneurs sold their businesses last year and decided to shift their focus to real estate. For instance, Marius Ivan, one of the founders of the paint manufacturer Dufa, announced he would develop two 21 million-euro office buildings in northern Bucharest, and pay for part of the investment with the money he collected from the sale of his Dufa stake.
Florentin Banu, the man who developed the supermarket chain Artima, which he sold for 17 million euros to Polish Enterprise Investors fund last year, announced a similar decision.
Banu announced he was considering building some blocks of flats in Timisoara, in an investment put at 10 million euros.