Franke aims at 12% higher revenues

Franke Romania, the leading sink supplier on the domestic market plans to attain 6.2 million euro sales this year, up more than 12% from 2002, general manager Valeriu Cobaschi said. The company, which has been operating in Romania for five years, sold some 5.5 million euros’ worth in 2002, ten times more than in its first year in business on this market. Franke also sells built-in home appliances for use in the kitchen such as ovens, stoves etc. Part of the stoves it sells are made in its factory near Bucharest, in the Pantelimon Commune. This is where it makes its Dominox stoves, a low-end brand. “We sold more than 70,000 sinks and over 16,000 built-in products last year, 3,400 of which were exported,” Cobaschi added. Under the circumstances, Franke’s market share is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50%, the company estimates. “The market is estimated at 150,000 units,” Cobaschi says. “Considering there are no domestic producers, the estimates are based on the data supplied by the National Statistics Institute. If calculated at an average 50 euro price, the sink sales on the Romanian market reach 7.5 million euros,” Franke’s manager said. ZF