The founder of Strong MND Corporation, Ştefan Mandachi, sold the company and the Spartan brand for 20.3 million euros.
Stefan Mandachi, founder of Strong MND Corporation
The largest franchisees of the Spartan restaurant chain become, starting from February, the main shareholders of Strong MND Corporation. The new majority shareholders take over the operations of the network, consisting of 75 restaurants, of which 43 were already franchised, writes Agerpres.
“The transfer process was initiated as early as May 2022, with the start of the official evaluation procedures for the sale, according to which the sum of 15.5 million euros was determined for the company Strong MND Corporation and 4.53 million euros for the Spartan brand. The transfer of the social shares was completed in January 2023, the transactions amounting to 20.3 million euros”, it is stated in the cited communique.
According to the document, the company has over 670 employees and in 2022 reached a turnover that exceeded 30 million euros, of which 2.12 million euros represent the amount directed to the state budget in the form of taxes.
Following the acquisition, Remus Cosovanu, the brand’s first franchise investor, who already had a 30% share in the number of restaurants, will own most of the company’s shares. The entrepreneur from Timisoara has been present in the Spartan business since 10 years ago.
The second most important investor is Răzvan Nanuş, the general director of the franchised company Rerum Food, which operates since 2016 a number of seven restaurants, in the regions of Bucharest and Constanta. Following this transaction, the company led by Răzvan Nanuş and Dragoş Safta, Rerum Food, becomes the master franchisor in the capital.
Remus Cosovanu takes over all the operations of the brand, along with 6 other members of the board of directors, made up of the company’s associates, between whom the rest of the shares are divided. The general director of Spartan Romania remains Gabriel Melniciuc, with over 20 years of experience in food retail, of which 16 years in the international fast-food chain McDonald’s, which owns 14% of the company’s shares.
Businessman Ştefan Mandachi will focus on growing the online education business and financing start-ups in technology, a field in which he has been investing since 2020.
“I sold the HoReCa and Real Estate companies that operated the Spartan, Hercules and Hollywood Villas franchises, including the BumBumBox, BIOtransylvania and Regatto franchises. I will only invest in the online education industry and technology because I’m passionate about it, it’s much more predictable and it’s in full of expansion. I have budgeted 1.3 million euros for the MentorMag e-learning application and I propose to finance 5 more start-ups in 2023 where we will invest approximately 2 million euros”, stated Ştefan Mandachi, the founder of the Spartan brand.
Currently, the Spartan chain operates 75 restaurants in Bucharest and in 44 other localities in the main cities of the country. In Europe, two Spartan restaurants are currently operating in Barcelona and Castellon.
