ProCredit Holding, the Frankfurt-based parent company of the group of development-oriented commercial ProCredit banks, supported the event “Fit for Growth - German-Romanian Supplier Dialogue” organised by the German Association for Supply Chain Management, Procurement and Logistics (BME) and held in Bucharest on 24 November 2016.
“Fit for Growth” was the first event of a new series of conferences organised by the BME with the purpose of fostering relationships between buyers from selected German companies and suppliers mainly located in Romania and in its neighbouring countries, Bulgaria and Serbia. The event attracted more than 230 visitors, among them business clients from the ProCredit banks in the region. The participants benefited from the first-hand insights provided by experts, including BME and two main buyers from the automotive sector, Dräxlmaier and Stabilus, and they also engaged in direct discussion and established new contacts in B2B conversations.
ProCredit Holding supported the event to present itself as “Hausbank” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Eastern and Eastern Europe and to enable selected clients from the ProCredit banks in in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Germany to gain expert knowledge on the German market. B2B meetings give the region’s SMEs a valuable opportunity to establish new business relationships and access new markets, and are therefore part of ProCredit’s development-oriented banking approach.
Dr Antje Marielle Gerhold, General Manager of ProCredit Bank Romania, said: “As a bank that aims to be the “Hausbank” for many small and medium-sized enterprises in Romania, we know that there are many qualified and reliable companies in the region. By creating a dialogue between suppliers and international buyers, events such as the German-Romanian Supplier Dialogue create additional prospects for our clients.”
The event was also appreciated by the participating ProCredit clients who visited the highly frequented stand of the ProCredit banks from Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Germany. Emil Zaimov, head of sales for the Bulgarian company Sky Mont Ltd, commented: “There were a number of companies there with which we would like to do business. We have already made appointments with them for the coming weeks, which is why this event was very successful for us. We also received useful information on how companies such as Dräxlmeier and Stabilus assess the economic situation in Eastern Europe and on the conditions they expect to be fulfilled by their suppliers. We have been clients of ProCredit since 2012 and are very satisfied. About 60-70% of our business is in exports, and we are oriented towards Germany. Nevertheless, we also want to learn more about our colleagues in Romania, and I talked to some of them at the event, which is why it was an informative and successful day for us.”
As a profitable, development-oriented commercial banking group for SMEs, ProCredit is active in the attractive and growing markets of South Eastern and Eastern Europe and operates in 11 countries in this region. The group is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and also operates in South America and in Germany. It pursues a mission of promoting sustainable development.