Hungarian retail chains selling electronic goods will soon have a Romanian competitor in Flanco, whose majority owner is Iulian Stanciu, the general manager of eMag, reports napi.hu.
According to Maszol, Flanco is planning to open its own web shop next year, selling household appliances and IT&C parts. The company operates with the help of Flamingo, founded by Florin Andronescu. After eMag, Flanco could be the second retailer in Romania to try its luck on the Hungarian market – announced Dragoș Sîrbu, general manager of Flanco.
“We will appear online in the Hungarian market to start with, and I will give you more details when the time comes. I prefer to talk about certainties and not about projects. The fact is, however, that we have already completed the registration of the company with the Hungarian authorities.” Hungary would be the company’s first foreign market.
Flanco, founded in the early 1990s, is Romania’s second-largest retail chain after Altex, which sells electronic products. The company has 160 stores in 110 cities and a web shop. In the past decade turnover has more than doubled. While in 2011 it had revenues of just 482 million lei, last year that figure rose to 1.078 billion lei. The company employs more than 1,500 people.
Flanco’s expansion project will of course be helped by the fact that the majority owner of the company is Iulian Stanciu, Romania’s leading online retailer and CEO of eMag. The company, currently under South African ownership, has been present on the Hungarian market since 2013 and is operating successfully. By 2024, the company plans to reach €1 billion in sales revenue.