Sika Romania has increased its turnover by 20% in H1 2012

• The company expects an annual turnover increase of 10% over the next 3 years

Sika România, headquartered in Braşov, concluded the first semester of this year with a turnover 20% higher compared to the first semester of 2011. The increase came as a result of some industrial and infrastructure projects, and the company estimates that it will see an annual turnover increase of 10% over the next 3 years.

Ioana Lorenc, marketing/PR manager of the company, said that in the first semester of this year, the company turnover did better than it did in last year's similar period. She said: "We have seen a percentage increase of approximately 20% in the first six months of 2012. The company's sales in the first semester of 2011 were mostly influenced by the execution of industrial and infrastructure projects, which prove that the private and public investments have begun thawing, compared to 2011", the quoted source said.

The company expects the upward trend of the sales to continue in the second semester, she went on to say. Considering that the construction market is uncertain, "especially since EU financing has ended, as well as due to the threat of loss of confidence of private investors, caused by the domestic political unrest".

Last year, the turnover of Sika Romania increased 17%, to 18 million Euros, and it expects sales to increase 10% annually over the next three years. According to the representatives of the company, the increase in turnover will be influenced by the growth of the retail division, by the number of distributors and the expertise of sellers and technical consultants, as well as by the execution of the announced infrastructure projects.

"Over the next years, we plan to expand the infrastructure of the research and development infrastructure by building a construction materials training center which will include a laboratory for concrete and mortars and one for the testing of adhesives, as well as the modernization of the existing laboratories. We are also in the process of building a wastewater treatment plant and we are considering the option of opening a new production unit", Lorenc said.

• A new crisis period is expected

The biggest issues which the company is faced with are the political uncertainty, the lack of economic measures taken by the government, the depreciation of the leu and the fact that the leu is an electoral year, the official of Sika said.

"We do not rule out the danger of a situation similar to that encountered at the peak of the economic crisis of 2009, when we had over 100 of our customers who entered insolvency, which affected our financial stability. Thus, even today we have ongoing lawsuits with companies which are undergoing reorganization. Even though the Romanian legislation did not protect us from situations like this, Sika Romania still has the benefit of the strong support it receives from a multinational group, which understood the issues we are faced with on a market affected by the crisis and has provided us with the financial support which we needed. This gave us the capital we needed to withstand the crisis, but we have also helped our customers, by giving them credit limits. Thus, we have succeeded in creating strong bonds and we long-term durable partnerships".

Sika invested 2.5 million Euros since its entry on the local market ten years ago. The funds went into the central headquarters, the production facility and its warehouse of Braşov, into the research and development laboratories for concrete, as well as in the training center for facades, completed last year, which will serve the Sika subsidiaries of Central and Eastern Europe.

Sika currently has subsidiaries in 76 countries and approximately 15,300 employees across the world. In 2011, Sika generated 4.55 billion Swiss Franks in sales.