Roberto and Cristina Batlan, owners of footwear brand Musette, have found a solution to Chinese competition: to move production to China, BUSINESS Magazin reveals.
Since last year, Cristina Batlan has been commuting to Vaslui county to oversee the footwear production of the Husi plant she owns together with her husband. The fate of Musette, a family business, worth 6m euros last year generated from the manufacturing and sale of footwear and leather goods, now depends on the number of employees, and on how much they can produce in Musette's two plants: one of which manufactures handbags and accessories in Bucharest and the other, which moved last September to Husi, shoes.
"We could no longer increase production. We went to Husi to secure a specialised workforce," explains Cristina Batlan. However, the investment in the new plant, which covers 5,000 square metres, is just a temporary solution, and Moldova is in fact "the last stop for the period of time we intend to go on working in Romania," considers Cristina Batlan.
Although Musette has succeeded in make their brand famous amid the flood of Chinese, Turkish and Indian products, on a market that is over 90% covered by imports, the owners believe the long-term solution to the problem of insufficient production lies in China.
"We're trying to find out whether the conditions are right for us to produce in China (...)," says Batlan.
The story behind Batlan family's debut into business is simple: two 20-year-old graduates leave the Law faculty to start a fabric business. Shortly, the two gained a position with the biggest fabric wholesalers in Romania and added footwear and leather goods import activities. A handbag factory followed. From 15 handbags per day produced in 2002, Musette has now come to produce 20 times that amount. After handbag production began, the two relinquished the fab
