Timisoreana, part of brewer Ursus (owned by South-African giant SABMiller) is positioned on the medium-price segment and is one of the three brands the producer, market leader by revenue, has in the ranking (together with Ciucas and Ursus).
Second and third in the ranking of beer sales by volume come Bucegi (Heineken) and Ciucas (Ursus). Overall, the ten best-selling beer brands in Romania, by volume, in 2014 held 76% of the market, according with Canadean data. There’s no information available about the market share of each brand.
Should the 76% market share maintain in terms of value as well, the cumulated sales of these brands would near EUR1.3 billion (over RON5.7 billion).
The order in the ranking was unchanged in 2014 against 2013. However, against 2012, Noroc brand (part of Bergenbier’s portfolio, a company owned by Canada’s Molson Coors) entered on the value segment and Ciuc, a premium beer part of Heineken’s portfolio, exited.
As a matter of fact, four brands in the top 10 are on the value segment, five are mainstream ones and just one is a premium brand.
A Competition Council report shows the beer market has the features of an oligopoly-type industry. The same report shows that in terms of brands Ursus Breweries counts on the popularity of Timisoreana brand, which it supports through strong advertising campaigns. On the other hand, the report notes, Heineken has a more balanced portfolio.
Heineken and Ursus are the brewers boasting the biggest sales on the Romanian beer market, a mature market, for which the Competition authority’s report notes small increases, of 1.5%-2%.
The beer market is set to witness growth starting as late as 2016, according with Canadean data, as the market research company expects the market to contract by 1.1% this year. These are the first prognoses about the trend of the beer market.
After 2015, beer sales are expected to keep rising until 2019, but in none of these years Canadean’s growth prediction goes above 3%.
“I believe major players aim to identify the suitable strategy at a national level, following the rules of the game dictated by the regional or international strategy of the group: while it holds almost half of the global beer market, Europe is a tough market, with price-based competition,” says Cristian Bisa, manager of consulting platform manageranticriza.ro.
On the other hand, the Competition authority’s report shows that in Romania advertising is playing a major role, with the capacity to influence approaches and behaviors.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)