“I don’t mind losses. The latest results regarding sales showed a 7% volume rise,” said Minea, without specifying the level of losses expected.
If the company ends the year in the red, these will be the company’s first losses in ten years, according to Finance Ministry data. At the end of last year Angst had a turnover of EUR43.9 million, slightly down on 2010.
Minea said one of the reasons why he expects weak results this year has to do with rising costs of meat.
“The price of meat has risen to 10 lei/kilo this year from RON8.6/kilo last year.”
However, he is confident that his plan to continue to position the company on the high-end segment of the meat market will be fruitful in the coming period, considering that competition is largely focused on medium and low-cost products.
“On a market where everybody is moving to losses, you either alter the recipes [lower quality], or increase prices. I chose to work on the prices and fortunately the market has responded well.”
This summer Angst launched a range of cold cuts based on ’60s and ’70s recipes.
Higher presence in modern retail
While in previous years the bulk of the sales of the cold cuts producer was done through the company’s own stores, this year the situation is different because of the aggressive expansion of German chain Lidl.
Minea estimates the sales of Angst’s own chain store this year cover 42% of overall sales, while last year they covered 60%.
“We boosted our presence both in Carrefour and in Lidl.”
Despite a lower rate of expansion compared with that of multinational chains in modern retail, Minea continues to have expansion plans, and is set to open three more stores in Bucharest by the end of the year.
The Angst chain currently has 27 stores, ten of which operate under the Carrefour Market-Angst brand, following a partnership sealed by Angst with the French retailer in the second part of last year.
Minea plans to take over full control of the Romanian Angst business next year, and buy the remaining 20% from his Swiss partner.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)