Romanian electro-IT retailer Flanco had sales of some EUR 78 million in the first six months of this year, 20% higher compared to the same period of last year, as the electro-IT market only went up by 9% in the same period, according to the company’s estimates.

“We managed to maintain a 20% growth rate in the first six months, as the market decelerated from an 11% increase in the first quarter to about 5-6% in the second trimester,” said Dragos Sirbu, Flanco’s CEO.

Large and small electronic appliances, telecom products, TV sets and notebooks sold better while tablets and photo cameras had lower sales.

“Air conditioning units didn’t sell as well as in previous years, due to the launch of the inverter technology, which is more expensive, and also because of the long life cycle,” Sirbu said.

He explained that a lot of Flanco’s clients came from the online segment, from the flanco.ro shop and the eMag Marketplace platform, but that many of these clients didn’t buy online, but searched for the products online and then went to the shops to buy them.

Flanco has 90 stores in Romania, after opening two new units in Coresi Shopping Center Brasov and Mega Mall in Bucharest. The company’s investment budget for this year is some EUR 2.2 million, 10% higher than last year.

editor@romania-insider.com