The Diverta bookstore chain, part of the RTC group, controlled by businessman Octavian Radu, saw a 7% rise in revenues in the first half of December against the previous few months’ average, thus offsetting part of the 30% decline reported in the first 11 months of 2008.
“December contributes 20% to the company’s overall turnover,” said Loredana Dobranis, vice-president of Diverta’s retail-sales department. In other words, the bookstore chain expects 7 million euros from sales of books, toys and IT products. The sales rise was influenced by this being the winter holiday season, when demand for presents is more significant.
This year, the Diverta chain, one of the leading book distributors on the Romanian market, alongside Carturesti and Humanitas bookstores, will end the year with a 35-36 million-euro turnover, down 25% on last year.
“We tried to make up for the sales decline on the entire retail market by opening new bookstores in Bucharest, in Baneasa Shopping City and AFI Palace Cotroceni, which have a 2,000 square-metre cumulated retail area,” said Dobranis. In October Diverta opened a new store in AFI Palace Cotroceni shopping centre, following an over 320,000-euro investment in a 650 square-metre store. The investment in the Baneasa Shopping City-based store, which opened in September, amounted to 400,000 euros.
On the other hand, 11 stores across Romania were closed this year, covering an overall area of 2,000 square metres.
These closures also brought about a 25% cut in employee numbers, to 730, with around 180 staff being made redundant, according to ZF estimates.
“Since the beginning of the year, Diverta has sought to adjust the employee structure in every store. We studied the hours where additional personnel is needed, introduced 12 part-time jobs, revised the operating flow and improved these processes,” specified Loredana Dobranis.
According to her, the most important project is analysing activity in each store and deciding on the number of personnel needed and their working hours based on traffic levels in specific intervals in the day. Moreover, wages of employees in the Diverta chain have been cut by up to 38% in a bid to reduce costs, after employees saw steady increases for ten years, according to previous statements from Octavian Radu.