Ciprian Lopata values international team
On a fine day four years ago, Ciprian Lopata decided that he had had enough of a career as an employee and the time was ripe to become an entrepreneur. Having lived and worked in Northern Europe for years, he visited his home country Romania after a long period of time and noticed that the rapid development there offered a number of interesting challenges and opportunities to make money.
He decided to take action. Ciprian asked two of his Estonian colleagues to become his partners, and in the autumn of the same year IPC Investment Group started its activities in an apartment in the city of Bucharest. To date, the assets of the company that once started out with only a printer, telephone and a desk have reached over 16 million euros.
Ciprian, why did you choose Estonians as your partners?
I have friends in all three Baltic States, and my wife is Russian, but I have always thought that if I had business partners, they should be Estonians. I had worked with them for years, by that time, and I was a fan of their pragmatic and transparent style of doing business. They are professional, dedicated and open minded.
How did it happen that you came to the Baltic States?
I was working as the West Romania Sales Director at Colgate-Palmolive. In 1997, all of a sudden and in the middle of the night (it was daytime in New York, of course), I received a phone call from the U.S. with a proposal to decide in 15 minutes whether to become the Regional Sales Manager of Colgate-Palmolive for Kaliningrad and the Baltic States. I got up quickly, looked up the Baltic States on the map - I knew where they were located, but that was all I knew. I said that in principle I was interested, but that I would like to look around there. Then I flew to Riga, where our headquarters were located, and then to Tallinn and Vilnius. I said ‘yes'. So far, I have not regretted my decision - for example, I was single when I left Romania, but now I have a beautiful wife, a great mother and wife, as well a successful business woman, and two children (laughs).
Under what circumstances did you meet your future partners?
I had been working for a couple of years as the Sales Manager, and after that as a General Manager at Colgate-Palmolive, when I received a phone call from a reputable executive search company in London. They invited me to an interview, without even specifying at first for which company. I went up there, took the tests and became the General Manager of Cleanaway Estonia in 2003. Next year, I was already the CEO for Eastern Europe and Russia. When we were looking for a Financial Manager, Indrek Elhi responded; as soon as I saw him, I realised that he was the man I needed. He had experience from PricewaterhouseCoopers and grasped the peculiarities of waste management quickly. 
How did you come to the decision to start operations in Romania?
In 2005, I returned to Romania after a long period of time to exchange my passport, because there was no more room for stamps. I noticed that Romania had begun to develop, but the situation was similar to that in the Baltic States in 1997. I went back, shared my impressions with Indrek and we decided to say farewell to our secure positions in an international company and go on living like people who don't get a good nights sleep, but who do something themselves - we became entrepreneurs (laughs).
Where did you start?
We started out with what seemed to be the safest - real estate. We bought plots for development in Bucharest. This was the right approach, people from Northern Europe were happy to invest because in return they got the feeling that they owned a plot of land in Romania. We earned their trust, which was most important.
How easy or difficult was it to open an office in Bucharest?
When we arrived in Romania in 2005, there were no available offices which were suitable for us. Offers started from 500 square metres. The only possibility was to rent an apartment. We had our bedrooms there, a meeting room, kitchen and workstations. After that, we came here (to the house where First Office is now located - ed.) and wanted to rent half a floor but you could rent only one floor in its entirety. We realised that there were many companies like ours in Bucharest and when we could later acquire space at favourable prices, we established First Office and began to rent unique fully equipped offices providing full service.
It seems now that First Office is our international opportunity. The first business centre has proven itself to date and we would like to open similar centres in other larger capitals.
You manage the Car Shower business line for IPC. How did the idea come about?
I like to wash my car myself, and in my home city of Geneva I can do that. We have very environmentally friendly self-service car washes there. Although Bucharest is very dusty, and cars get dirty quickly as well, we have few automatic car washes and no self-service car washes here.
We began to develop a car wash concept which was to be self-service at first. Later on, we arrived at high-performance automatic car washes that can wash 100 cars per hour. We visited two of the world's largest car wash manufacturers in Germany and they told us that our concept would also work in Germany. So there is an international prospect for the business. At the moment, we are selecting plots for the car wash chain in Romania. The first location, in the Carrefour hypermarket car park, has been fixed.
Do you feel that an international team has more potential than an ordinary one?
I am convinced that the IPC team has a very strong potential. Different nationalities, different knowledge and different personality traits add a lot. We will certainly have more nationalities in the future because our ambition is not limited to the Romanian market.
Does it feel good to be back in Romania?
I am here today, tomorrow I will fly back home to Geneva, I will travel to Riga the day after tomorrow... I work in Romania but my home is not here. My family lives in Geneva, but my partners and business certainly come right after them. Of course it is good to be back here in my native country, as still my parents and my sister's family are here. And of course, I know the best the Romanian business culture and mentality, as I was forming myself as a professional in this market.