How Adrian State persuaded Den Braven to come near Bucharest

Adrian State, general manager of Den Braven Romania, in July
2006 convinced Netherlands’ Den Braven to choose Buftea locality
neighbouring Bucharest as a location for the East European plant
instead of Hungary, and investments aimed at the Romanian market
have already hit 20m euros, reads Business Construct magazine. Den
Braven Romania in 2005-2006 ranked first at group level in terms of
sales per capita and GDP, a factor that weighed more than the
Hungarian state’s offer of funding half of investments. “When I
heard the group wanted to build a plant in Hungary, I went to Mr.
Kees den Braven, owner of the group, and told him ‘I did not
imagine you’d invest in a country other than Romania’ (…)”, says
State, who runs the operations of Den Braven Romania, a 30.8m-euro
business in 2009, down 8% from the previous year. State has
targeted ongoing sales growth ever since 2001. How has he achieved
this? Through monthly employee control. Moreover, the company has
managed to boost its sales through the introduction of an
electronic system monitoring sales agents’ activity.