If you have bought foreign audio and video technologies and products, there is a good chance that they were imported by the Interservice Uzunovi. The Varna-based company was founded in 1990 by Krasimir Uzunov, with all of two second-hand copy machines as its office supplies.

Today, after a reworking of company structure and activity in October 2000, Interservice Uzunovi Plc imports and is the official distributor of household electrical appliances – it has been the official and only representative of Sharp Corporation since 1998, it has been working with Superser (Bosch-Siemens Group) since 1995, and is the only distributor in Bulgaria of Edesa and Fagor. The company also imports, distributes and assembles furniture and accessories for houses, offices, hotels and municipal buildings, with brands like British Bed Exports, Danona, Intra, Gabar and Yatas. This is done through Interservice Uzunovi’s daughter company Ralitza Furniture Houses Plc.

Furnishing hotels and houses with basics like sinks is a specific sector, and of it, Interservice Uzunovi holds a significant share. Among others, it instals 20 000 doors every year.

It also manages projects, including commercial centres and trade parks, residential complexes, villa zones, common buildings and hotels through its Company for Managerial Projects AD.

Full-time employees number 500, with the figure growing to 800 in the summer. Though headquartered in Varna, it also has offices and stores in Bourgas, Dobrich, Plovdiv, Razgrad, Shoumen and Veliko Turnovo.

Uzunov, the main shareholder and executive director of the company, said that the company stays competitive by being honest with its clients and partners and paying off its debts and loans on time, and by staying true to its corporate values.

This has obviously paid off, as Uzunov himself ranked 10th in the list of Top 100 Bulgarian Businesses 2008, organised by the newspaper Pari. Interservice Uzunovi Plc and Ralitza Furniture Houses Plc have a capital of more than 15.4 million leva.

He told The Sofia Echo that as a family business, Interservice Uzunovi has been able to maintain its unique character. “We’re all in it together – my wife and I, my daughter and son-in-law, my son. Everyone has his or her sphere of activity, everyone has his or her successes and challenges; the important thing is that our goals are all the same, which is also the largest motivation for us to work together in this business path,” he said.