Leonardo planning expansion

The Leonardo chain (selling shoes and leather items), which is owned by businessman Florin Panea, will expand this year by opening five new stores in Hungary and one each in Bulgaria, Moldova and the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Leonardo’s management also intends to open 5 to 10 new stores in Romania. “The amount of investment in the opening of a new store depends on the location, surface area and finishing, and we want our stores to be in areas of maximum commercial traffic: pedestrian streets or shopping centres,” Gratian Ivan, Leonardo’s commercial manager, told ZF Transilvania. The company currently has 68 stores in Romania and 12 in Hungary. Company officials estimate turnover for Romania will reach 46 million euros, up 15% on last year, and forecast a turnover in Hungary of 7 million euros. Leonardo’s sales increased 15% in real terms compared with 2003 to a total of nearly 40 million euros in Romania and 6 million euros in Hungary. Leonardo is one of the few Romanian companies to have expanded abroad. ZF