Biggest Romanian Bookstore Chain DIVERTA Files for Insolvency

The biggest Romanian bookstore chain, DIVERTA, a local brand well known for the book lovers in the country, files for insolvency. This is the second time the owners retort to this protection measure after they did the same thing in 2010 after the economic crisis.

In a letter to its employees, the owner mentions a Governmental help which was promised but which has never come:

I sadly announce to you that Diverta is forced to ask for the insolvency procedure. During the pandemic, our stores were closed for 3 months. We re-opened them, but the sales continued to stay very low, even by almost 40%, while the spendings on the salaries and the rent remained high. All these lead to losses of nearly 2 million EUR. Therefore, the debts to the shareholders, to the state budget, and the suppliers grew.

On one hand, during our discussions with the Government, we were promised to be helped with a grant which would have saved us but the grant hasn’t come until now. On the other hand, we identified many potential buyers for our company, but the time was too short to close a deal. A normal supply of our bookstore chain was not possible anymore and more and more suppliers threatened us with foreclosure.

Letter to the employees of DIverta’s owner

It is not the first, nor the last Romanian company to ask for insolvency or to go bankrupt in the following months. Data show that thousands of Romanian entrepreneurs need urgent help from the Government following the closure during the pandemic and following low sales, but the authorities did little to help them. The promised grants have never come and the Recovery and Resilience Plan hasn’t yet been properly conceived by the Romanian officials, let alone approved by the European Commission.

The much-needed help is not even on the way, and the entrepreneurs lost hope for a better economic future. How many jobs will be lost? Specialists talk about tens of thousands of jobs, mainly in the hospitality sector. But, as we can see, the retailers and many other sectors face tough times ahead as well.