Gipo forecasts turnover worth 15m euros

Egibo, owner of the Gipo store chain, which distributes and sells fishing, hunting, camping, sports, and gardening equipment, has budgeted turnover worth 15 million euros for 2008, up 85% against last year. “We target a 14-15 million-euro turnover for the whole company this year, around 85% more than in 2007, and a 10% profit rate,” says Horia Galateanu, general manager of Gipo. Half of the turnover, i.e. around six or seven million euros will come from sales derived by the Gipo store chain, specialised in fishing, hunting and camping equipment, which means a 50-60% increase against 2007. The company saw a 62% turnover increase last year, reaching 8.1 million euros, after being taken over by Gemisa’s private equity fund for 900,000 euros. “We started a more aggressive policy to boost the turnover in line with the shareholders’ goals. As a first step, we developed distribution to independent clients, to key accounts and to the big hypermarkets and cash & carry stores, and we brought new fishing tackle brands into our portfolio,” explains Galateanu.