Florentin Banu: 2006, a year for investments and settling

Almost one year after the “liquidation” of Artima business and after he launched three other businesses, Florentin Banu, 39, admits he has grown tired of starting businesses from scratch, but does not rule out his future involvement in other projects though.

“I am a little tired, I admit it, but I”m an optimist, and my past has made me even more optimistic. My plan is – after I manage to balance the three businesses, to dedicate most of my time to the human resources within my organisation and through them create the management base for potential businesses,” Florentin Banu told ZF Transilvania.

At present, his businesses are grouped under the Banuinvest umbrella and carried by Interpart Production – a manufacturer of plastic marks for the car industry, Banuconstruct – specialised in constructions and Banusport – managing a sports complex, all of which located in Timisoara. The businessman estimates Banuinvest group will not log turnover higher than 3 million euros this year.

“We are only at the beginning, and 2006 is another year for investments and settling, and not for exploitation in itself. We still have very many things to tend to in the domains we operate in, but we are upbeat, because the efforts we”ve made over the several months since we sold Artima are starting to bear fruit,” states Banu.

An investment programme exceeding 1.5 million euros for production development is going to be carried out this year within Interpart Production. At present, the company is operating in a 1,000 square facility, but by the end of this year the company”s management plans to finalise a new production facility on a 3,000 square metre area. “The investment will be located in Freidorf industrial park, belonging to Timisoara City Hall. Beside production facilities, we will also build offices and social space, and we are going to transfer our current production to this area,” stated Banu.

In his opinion, in the case of Interpart things are just beginning to clear up. In the meantime, the other company of the group, Banuconstruct is handling a real estate project related to the construction of seven blocks of flats by late 2007, with the investment to come to around 10 million euros.

Florentin Banu, who owned over 27% in Artima, sold the 14 supermarket chain along with the other shareholders for 17 million euros. Artima was established in 2001 with the money Banu had collected from the sale of the wafer company Joe to Swiss giant Nestle.