A local company growing into a regional player

Mircea Turdean, the CEO of Farmec, first started working with the company as a lab technician, and rose through the ranks as the company grew into a major player on the market. Farmec now has a sustained annual growth of 10 percent and it has significantly expanded its portfolio in recent years, both in Romania and abroad.

By Anda Sebesi

“I am proud of the fact that the business continued to grow in 2022, not only in terms of turnover, but also in terms of the company’s international expansion, as we strengthened our presence on Amazon in Spain, Italy, and France. Our portfolio also saw a significant expansion last year, crowned by our first-ever product range that was fully inspired and designed for Generation Z,” says Mircea Turdean as he talks about the company’s 2022 achievements. He adds that being able to get costs under control amid all the recent economic and supply chain challenges and to continue to offer its consumers a wide range of cosmetic, beauty, and home care products was another positive outcome. “The implications of last year’s large-scale international events had an impact on the local economy: the inflation along with the increase in energy and fuel prices led to a 40 percent rise in production costs, but we managed to contain these costs with little to no support from retailers or state authorities, with the aim of reducing the impact on the end-consumer,” the CEO explains.

Turdean says that being a second-generation leader of the company and having 12 years of experience in his position have taught him the power of having a trusted team and the importance of relying on what has been built in approaching the future. “I have learned to see challenges as vectors of opportunity. In over a decade under my leadership, Farmec has experienced times of both bloom and instability, in the face of which I always chose to go back to our commitments to innovation, development, and community involvement.” He highlights the most recent example of a crisis—the beginning of the pandemic—when both individuals and organisations were in need of disinfectant solutions. In a matter of weeks, Farmec transformed its cosmetics production capacities into ones that made disinfectants that were intensively tested and authorised for market distribution.

“I believe that this approach to trust and our sense of responsibility regarding our market positioning as a brand that was founded and beloved by Romanians played a major role in the company’s sustained annual growth of 10 percent. In addition, it determined the expansion of our portfolio, both locally as well as across 30 international markets,” Turdean notes.

As for the future, the CEO says that the company aims to obtain public institutional support for its greatest endeavor so far: the relocation of its manufacturing operations to a new facility, outside the city, which will allow it to address the growing demand from customers and strengthen its relevance and notoriety as a regional player. “For this major project, we have the ability to provide a significant amount of the total necessary investment, but we’ll also rely on the state’s support, as I believe it is part of its responsibility to support the local business environment and the brands that help put the country on the international map in their respective industries.”