More than a year after the takeover of the majority stake by the private equity company SARMIS Capital, COS, a leader in the fit-out market sector, reports a business volume of €28 million in the fiscal year 2022. The market registers an accelerated growth trend, in the context of favourable business dynamics, both in Bucharest and in the regional cities of the country.
COS business thus grows by 32 percent versus the previous year, which is an indicator of the strong market dynamic in the post-pandemic period, also indicating investors` and tenants’ appetite for investments in interiors. COS is active in interior design and building a segment for offices (large tenants and dynamic entrepreneurial companies), industrial spaces (interior fittings within logistics parks and industrial facilities), hospitality, healthcare (interiors for clinics and hospitals) and education.
This year, the companies accelerated their investments in interior spaces, both to accommodate the new hybrid work format at the office, as well as to maintain their spaces competitive and attractive, considering the relatively old stock on the market, this trend being registered mostly in the healthcare, hospitality, or education segments. The modern logistic & industrial segments continue their ascending trend, with the need for complete interior solutions also on the rise.
Of the total business volume, more than €15 million represents construction services (planning and interior design), while the rest of the volume is related to sales of furniture from global brands such as Steelcase and locally-sourced customized furniture. Although the most significant sales volume is registered in the standard, non-custom furniture segment, the business has seen a substantial increase in appetite for customized furniture solutions, made by local producers. In 2022, the company recorded €3 million in sales in the customized furniture segment, made by local manufacturers, up by 50 percent as compared to the previous year.
A significant volume of business this year comes from the large regional cities, such as Iasi, Timisoara, Cluj, Craiova, Ploiesti. Thus, 45 percent of the COS business is represented by projects in cities other than Bucharest – for comparison, in 2019, 12 percent of the requests came from regional cities.
“The team had a decisive role in successfully addressing the challenges of recent years, marked by uncertainty at the entire level of the business environment, implicitly in the very good results obtained this year. At the same time, we expanded our team this year, reaching a total of 112 employees, compared to about 100 a year ago,” says Christophe Weller, founding shareholder and CEO of COS.
“2022 was a year of integration and efficiency, in which the focus of the teams was on the implementation of the strategy agreed upon at the time of acquisition. Thus, the main investments made were in the direction of digitization (through the implementation of new software solutions and digitization programs) and the improvement of work processes. The positive results are visible in the recent evolution of the business, and we are still confident in the development potential of the local fit-out market,” declares Cezar Scarlat, Managing Partner, and co-founder of SARMIS Capital.
Recently, COS completed its office and showroom relocation to a 3,000 sqm space in the new MIRO building in the North of Bucharest – Baneasa area, developed by Speedwell, after it had previously occupied a 1,000 sqm space, in the same area of the Capital, for 15 years. The relocation is part of the company’s expansion strategy, both in terms of geographic coverage and in terms of targeted market segments.
In the last year, COS signed significant projects, for office tenants from Bucharest or from the country such as OMV Petrom, Citi Bank, MassMutual, Accenture, CMS Cameron McKenna, Amazon, Porsche Engineering, Cognizant, but also for beneficiaries from other activity segments, such as the Daruieste Viata Association (the new Children’s Hospital built by Daruieste Viata at the Marie Curie hospital), the Radisson Blu hotel chain, s.a.
