1. Sale of Betty Ice to Unilever
Entrepreneur Vasile Armenean sold Betty Ice, the largest ice cream business to Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever this year. The deal, which ZF put at some EUR100 million, is the largest in the food sector in 2018. Vasile Armenean is now in charge of the entire ice cream business of Unilever.
2. Top management changes at major companies
Beverage industry businesses such as Coca-Cola HBC Romania, Ursus Breweries, Heineken Romania and food industry companies such as Covalact and Fornetti made management changes. Coca-Cola HBC Romania put Jovan Radoslavljevic in charge, Heineken got Dan Robinson and Ursus Breweries will have a new chairman as of January, Dragos Constantinescu.
Another change was the departure of Calin Clej, one of the managers with extensive marketing expertise, from PepsiCo. Covalact got a new boss, Giampaolo Manzonetto, who runs the entire operation of Lactalis in Romania.
3. Romanian companies start making acquisitions abroad
Romanian companies are starting to expand abroad and buy plants. The latest such example is Scandia Sibiu, the largest canned foods producer in Romania, which bought Thenaisie Provote, a company in Galicia (Spain), specializing production and distribution of fish and seafood.
Radu Timis, too, says he plans to make acquisitions in the countries where his company, Cris-Tim exports its products.
4. Plant closures continue
The food industry started 2018 on the wrong foot with the closure of two plants – Zaharul Oradea and Dorna dairy plant. Both companies are top actors in their respective industries. Lemarco sugar plant in Urziceni soon followed, which filed for insolvency.
5. Alexandrion Group bought Halewood wines
Alexandrion Group, the largest local spirits producer, with almost EUR40 million revenue a year, took over the Romanian wine portfolio of UK’s Halewood. Halewood wines are not the first acquisition of the Alexandrion Group, which last year entered the hotel business by buying the New Montana hotel in Sinaia. Alexandrion is also building a plant in the US.
6. Good news: New plants are being built
This year, Agroserv Mariuta in Dragoesti, Ialomita County, which owns a more than 2,000 cattle farm, invested over EUR5 million in a dairy processing plant taking up about 1,500 square meters. Industrial bakery company Vel Pitar, too, started construction of a plant this year, an about EUR3 million investment.
7. Startups entering the market in full gear
Small niche businesses are gaining ground in the food industry after many years during which consumers had been attracted by mass market products. More and more honey, meat or dairy producers, as well as grocery stores are coming up, and they attract customers from the ranks of those two usually shop at supermarkets, but want products with an authentic taste. Moreover, entrepreneurs are starting to partner to sell their products easier.
8. Old guard entrepreneurs are back in business
After having sold the Albalact and Supremia Grup businesses to two French groups, Raul Ciurtin and Levente Bara turned their attention to other sectors. Raul Ciurtin boosted investment in canned foods producer Prefera Foods and bought a plant, while Levente Bara and his business partner Alexandru Chiric will build a new plant in Alba County, which will make nut oil among others. The investment stands at more than EUR4 million.
9. New projects on the wine market
On a wine market that is gaining more and more wine lovers, Virgil Mandru, owner of Tohani winemaker teamed up with entrepreneurs Razvan Macici and Paolo Mennini to establish a new venture, Valahorum, an umbrella grouping three boutique wineries making premium wines. More and more premium wineries are being established and those already in business, such as Liliac, Avincis, Petro Vaselo and Carastelec are growing year by year.
10. Delaco founders exit the company
French-held Savencia Fromage & Dairy, with EUR4.8 billion net sales a year, acquired full control over Delaco Distribution, one of the largest players on the dairy market. Delaco founders – Tudor Comaniciu, Dragos Comaniciu, Victor Vartolomei and Romulus Dumitru, who had kept 28% in the business, exited the company.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)