From photography to car dealership

“I like to say that Rotta is a Mediterranean name. One may find it in Italy or Greece, but I think it is also a Spanish name. I introduce myself as a Macedonian. My grandfather came from Serifos Isle, in the Aegean Sea, where half of the inhabitants bear this name.

He started by selling sheep and candles,” Razvan Rotta, one of the best known businesspeople in Cluj, recollects. General manager of Compexit Trading, he is also an associate of Top Car and Proton Auto, and one of Banca Transilvania founders.

He graduated the German High School in Sighisoara and the Philology Faculty in Cluj, but he refused to teach in a village and, after two years, he managed to find a job as a teacher at the German High School from Cluj.

In 1981, after seven years of experience in primary education, he was admitted as an assistant teacher at the Modern Languages Department within the Technical University. This was when he started his first business.

As he had a lot of spare time, Razvan Rotta got a licence to practice photography. “I was making albums for high school graduates. They were good, I worked quickly and earned a lot of money at the time.”

He also made a lot of money when he sold some pictures taken on the afternoon of December 21, 1989 to Paris Match.

“These were the hottest photos and I published them later as I did not know their real price. They were printed on Paris Match front page and on seven double pages inside the same 1990 issue.”

The pictures sold in England, Brazil, Japan, Italy and Spain. “I made some money from this, enough to buy a van,” Razvan Rotta says.

He teamed up with two partners and they established Compexit, dealing with white goods.

In 1993, the year of the peak, but also the year of Caritas collapse, commerce had been booming in Cluj. People would buy anything so that was the year when Compexit started a business with cars, becoming the dealer of one Skoda importer.

The business fared well for a while but the importer failed to honour the orders and discontent clients came to Compexit to complain. “This is how we learnt to make business with cars and we became quite famous at Mlada Boleslav plant,” Razvan Rotta recollects.

In 1996, Compexit became the only Skoda importer, which involved more work and responsibilities than the dealership activity. But they succeeded in this business and opened an office in Bucharest two years later.

In 1998, Porsche Austria, sole importer of the consortium’s brands, namely Volkswagen, Seat, Audi and Skoda, established Porsche Romania, while Compexit became a dealer again. But the business was strong enough, as they had commercial spaces, show-rooms, and fully-equipped service.

Compexit registered 60 billion lei in turnover last year, while the company has already sold more than 100 cars this year, 30 more than the previous year. Compexit aims mainly at distribution companies and high-income consumers in need of a safe car.