Diverta sees $20m turnover

Diverta store chain expects to post $20 million turnover this year, up 60% from last year. It opened 30 stores in 2003.

“We’ve witnessed this growth because we expanded by opening new stores in Bucharest and throughout the country,” stated Diverta’s manager Sebi Vasilescu.

Diverta comprises 90 stores that sell office supplies, music, movies, IT equipment, mobile phones and accessories.

All in all, the stores are selling 50,000 different items. The company has expanded by 30 stores this year, three of which located in Bucharest.

“Another reason behind this growth may be the doubling in the volume of books and IT products sold, which we paid a special attention to this year,” Vasilescu said.

Diverta this summer conducted a campaign to promote the IT equipment it retails, a project the company representatives were hoping to result in this segment accounting for 30% of the sales. The commercial area of the Diverta stores varies according to city and location.

The latest store opened is the one in Targu Jiu, which takes up 205 sqm. The investment in this shop was worth $80,000 and traffic projections point to an over 20,000 visitor monthly average and to more than $300,000 turnover in its first year in business. This store sells 7,000 out of the 50,0000 different items the chain retails. Diverta entered the market in 2001 and was established by the RTC (Radu Trading Company) Group run by businessman Ovidiu Radu, following the merger of two already existing chains, OfficeNet (office supplies retailer) and @Litera (book retailer).

The creation of Diverta was prompted by the fact that the two chains had come to sell about the same type of products in the course of time.

The company officials have set expansion to 300 stores across the country as their goal for the next two or three years.

RTC Group also comprises RTC Holding, Antalis, Euros and RPC Paper Converting. The group began splitting two years ago, when 51% in its standardised form paper division, Europ Paper, were sold to Greek Inform P. Lykos Company. claudia.covaci@zf.ro