Mission of the new Snack Attack’s managing director

Iancau’s mission consists in more than expanding the chain and Snack Bakeries, the new bread division, which was set up due to bread production boost.

“It is important to upgrade operations, to have a full control on costs”, Razvan Iancau, managing director of the company stated. The mission is not easy in the current grim context, when global financial crisis and fluctuation of leu/euro rate hurts Romanian economy, by production cost raise and profit decline, especially for importers.

“The crisis had not affected us up to now, but it certainly will in the future, as most of our providers are importing. It will obviously hit costs and access to loans”, Iancau added. Companies are importing packaging materials and ingredients come from the local market.

Earlier this year, before appointing Razvan Iancau at the helm of the company, representatives have set an average currency exchange rate of 3.6 lei/euro. “If the actual currency exchange rate will not be steady, then it will surely be a problem. The recent growth is wiped out by the sways of the foreign currency exchange rate,” Iancau added.

For 2008, Snack Attack representatives forecast 10 million euros turnover. A 47% growth considering the new units opened in Bucharest. Sandwich segment will gear biggest share of the earnings which before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization will be around 8-10%.

“At this point the growth is high. Next year it will not exceed 20-25%”, said Iancau. However, one of the most important aspects is the shut down of procedures for listing shares at London trading, considering the simultaneous slumps of stock exchange quotations in United States and Europe.

“The point was to be listed at the stock exchange; however, we have abandoned the idea now. We will conduct an audit to assess company’s position. We have not completely let go the listing plans. We will wait until the crisis ends, namely two years, according to our estimations”, Iancau added, mentioning that the main challenge at this point is to develop the business, and to improve operations, and any plans of listing or selling the company have no sense now”.

With almost 20 years work experience, 14 of them in FMCG sector, Razvan Iancau, the new managing director of Snack Attack since July last year, proposed an overhaul of the company’s role on bread market in Romania.

“Snack Attack is a complex business: production, gas station division, retail, distribution, food store chain. For the moment we are seeking to develop production capacity and to bolster Snack Attack’s presence on stores’ shelves. We will set up a new bread division, a bread factory will be opened at Bucharest outskirts, a Greenfield investment,” Razvan Iancau, managing director at Snack Attack.

Former deputy managing director at DP Magassin, the retail division of Vel Pitar, with 157 stores network in 10 cities in the country that commercializes a wide range of products, it is obvious why Snack Attack invited Razvan Iancau to joint the team.

Snack Attack’s bread factory that required approximately 2 million euros investment, the company’s managing director will shore up production capacity increase of bread, and the new brand that Iancau launches on a niche market.