About us
From a two-person workshop in 1998 to a team of eight, Highland Mercer has always measured success by how well it serves this neighbourhood.
Highland Mercer was founded in March 1998 by two friends who had spent a decade working for larger organisations and grown frustrated by the distance those organisations kept from the people they served. The original premises were a single room on Strada Mercy with two desks and a kettle. In the first year, every client was someone from within walking distance. Word spread slowly, then faster. By 2005 we had a staff of four and had moved into our current premises, the cream-and-burgundy frontage that regulars now use as a landmark when giving directions. By 2015 we had served more than four thousand individual clients, each one recorded in a ledger the founders still maintain by hand as a matter of principle. Today we are eight people. The founders remain involved in day-to-day work. Nothing about the ownership structure has changed, and no outside investor has ever had a say in how we run this business.
These are not aspirational statements — they are the behaviours our clients have observed for twenty-six years.
We remember names. When a client calls us for the first time in two years, we look up their record and address them by name within the first sentence. It takes ten seconds and it changes the entire tone of the conversation. We invested in a proper client management system in 2009 for exactly this reason.
If the job you are describing is outside our expertise, we say so and recommend someone else. We will not take work we cannot do well — our reputation in this neighbourhood is worth more to us than any single invoice. That policy has cost us short-term revenue and earned us long-term trust.
When we give you a time, we arrive at that time. If something genuinely prevents this, we call at least thirty minutes before the appointment — not after. Over the last twelve months, our on-time rate across all scheduled appointments was ninety-four percent, independently verified through our post-visit survey system.
Wherever possible, the same team member handles a client's ongoing work. Relationships built over years produce better outcomes than fresh eyes every visit. Our longest continuous client relationship began in 1999 and is still active — twenty-five years of the same two people working together.
I have been a client since 2003, when I was a student renting a flat in Fabric. Twenty-one years on, I now own a house three streets from the original flat, and Highland Mercer still handles everything for me. The founders' names are in my phone under 'friends', not 'suppliers'. That tells you more about this business than any description could.
— Radu Ionescu, Fabric district
Timișoara has changed enormously since 1998. The city became a European Capital of Culture, new districts have grown, and the pace of life in the centre has accelerated. Through all of it, Strada Mercy has remained a quiet street where things move at a human pace. Highland Mercer fits that rhythm. We have watched families grow up, seen businesses open and close around us, and celebrated with clients when good things happened. We joined local initiatives during the 2023 cultural year, contributing time and materials to three community projects. We are not just operating in this city — we are part of it. That is not something you can buy. It is something you build over twenty-six years, one appointment at a time.
No appointment needed to introduce yourself — we enjoy meeting new neighbours.