The Fornetti patisserie company witnessed 35% sales growth in the first half of this year, to 7,700 tonnes of pastries. Fornetti projects turnover worth 27 million euros this year, 56% higher year-on-year. The company last year generated turnover worth 62.7 million RON (17.3m euros), up 47% against 2004, and gross income standing at 12.8 million RON (3.5m euros), up 63.5%. The company plans to open another 60 stores in a franchise system by yearend. “At the end of last year, we had 427 stores and now we’ve reached 490. We estimate we will have opened 550 stores by the end of this year,” said Panczel Zoltan, general manager of the company. The most profitable market for Fornetti is Bucharest, which is responsible for consuming more than 40% of the company’s production. In Bucharest, Fornetti also has a branch and a frigorific warehouse, in which it invested 400,000 euros. The company’s biggest investment worth over 3.5 million euros was finalised last year and targeted doubling production capacities.