The two have known each other for over 31 years, and have managed to turn an apparently modest industry – production of cheese puffs, into a several million-euro business. Their company is the second largest producer in Romania, and the largest local supplier. With no very visible presence, the business grew over a period of more than 10 years, and owners still feel they have reason to be optimistic, even in a time of crisis, or maybe thanks to the crisis, if economic difficulties prompt consumers to turn to cheaper products. ”Cheese puffs could see significant sales in the next two years, which are expected to be under the shadow of the crisis,” believes Adrian Iordache.

After several years of operating an ice cream business in their native city of Ploiesti, which started with the secondhand purchase of an ice cream cart, in 1996, they had a plant that produced 40 tonnes of ice cream a day. It was then that the two business partners decided to move on to a new product category – cheese puffs, because they wanted a product that, unlike ice cream, would not be seasonal. They bought an old cheese puff maker from an old bakery in Cluj and got down to work. Initially, the cheese puff plant functioned in the old location, in the centre of Ploiesti, but soon its production capacity, of 200,000 bags of puffs a day, proved to be insufficient, not to mention the fact that it was rather inefficient to have a plant in the middle of a city. The two then decided to relocate production from the city centre to the outskirts of Ploiesti. For a while, the two plants, the one in Ploiesti and the one in Baicoi, functioned in parallel, but as of 2006, only the second one has remained functional.

Currently, the Baicoi plant employs 300 people, with the plant’s production capacity amounting to 1 million bags of puffs a day, according to the two partners. Although they set up the company 16 years ago, the idea of producing Gusto puffs has brought them more visibility, especially lately, when sales exceeded their expectations. ”When we started making puffs, we were using a rudimentary technology, like everyone else. We would put the puffs on the table, sprinkle them with oil and salt, and then package them. Now everything is computerised,” says Apostolescu.