DM4.7m from paper and pencils

Four years ago, when a serious stationery business was quite a novelty, Razvan Mihalache, who had some expertise in this field as he used to manage such a company, was still thinking about the idea, but lacked the required money.

The money came from Catalin Tohaneanu, a journalist and commercial manager with Uniplus radio station, who sold his shares in Uniplus and more or less hesitatingly decided to become a businessman of his own.

As the two men associated, they established Top Birotica, one of the Bucharest leaders on the stationery market. Among its 2,700 clients, there are Connex, Ericsson, Agip, Romstal, Allianz and Pagini Aurii, which has even signed an exclusivity contract with Top Birotica.

“I was quite reluctant at the beginning, as I found it odd to flow my money into paper. But it was about stationery and everybody needed it for the office-work. The stationery market was developing in Romania, somehow apart from the general economic background,” Tohaneanu recollects.

The two associates, who are now managing a prosperous business, still do not consider themselves genuine professionals. Razvan Mihalache thinks that “fresh” ideas made them obtain a leading position at the beginning, but these were gradually copied by others, too.

The two businessmen consider that 1999 was the most difficult year in the company’s four-year existence, as the growth pace was quite low, with only 10% sales increase.

“As compared to others, who registered losses, we could say we fared better. We usually track the signs of a downturn within one week. Companies cut their budgets, but still don’t give up our services.”

The bright side is that one cannot give up paper and pencils, so if you are quite rooted in such a business, you will never get out of it. You can only shrink a little.

Besides the macro-economic ailments, the two managers say that cashing the money from distributors is quite a nuisance.

The company uses two sale devices: distributors and direct sales to the end consumers – companies and offices. One can hardly draw plans and budgets since payments are quite uncertain.

As for the legislation, Top Birotica decided to forgo the “support” of fiscal incentives. Consequently, the company derived profits last year, when it registered 4.7 million Deutsche marks in turnover.