Almost27 years ago, Alexandru Rizea set the foundation of the Lemet company, currently one of the largest Romanian furniture companies.
Its production and storage halls cover more than 40,000 sqm, while the furniture factories’ annual manufacturing capacity is as high as 3,500,000 PAL panels. Asked how he managed to start such a large business from scratch, Rizea says that the most important roles in the development of his business were played by his family and his employees.
In fact, his two children also work in the company: his son, Adrian Rizea, is a commercial director and the person who led the expansion of the Lem’s store chain, while his daughter, Adina Ionescu, is responsible for CSR activities, occupational medicine, quality standards certifications and European funds projects. Furthermore, his wife manages the financial side, while his son-in-law takes care of logistics.
A solid strategy
Alexandru Rizea manifested his entrepreneurial spirit at a time when the market economy still looked like a dream. “Our first product was a series of 15 tables. We made them in collaboration with a craftsman, because we didn’t have the tools and we didn’t know how to make the base. We sold them to friends and colleagues on the same day that we made them,” he recalls.
In that moment, he realised there was big demand on the market, and this was the idea on which he built his business strategy. Rizea managed to handle the growth of demand by increasing his production capacity, which he was able to do through constant investments.
