“We started home delivery 3-4 years ago, but sales are not relevant. We’re now developing the website, which is set to be ready in two weeks,” Vasile Armenean, owner of Betty Ice, told ZF.
The company reached revenue of around EUR20 million last year.
The entrepreneur, who started the business in the ‘90s, says the home delivery project coped with two highly challenging years for the ice-cream market because of the rainy weather.
“We’re all trying to do more to boost sales, but this comes to nothing if the weather is not favorable”.
The mostly rainy weather in the first half of the year caused a decline by as much as 20% in the sales of ice cream compared with the year-ago period, according to Armenean, who considered that August would be decisive for the company’s 2014 revenue level. He stated that if weather conditions do not change, revenue will drop by 20%.
The company has around 150 ice-cream shops countrywide, with 350 employees.
Betty Ice owns a production unit in Suceava and is one of the biggest employers in the field, with an average number of 669 employees in 2013.
Annual consumption stands at some 2 liters (22 ice cream cones) per capita in Romania, less than one quarter of the amount a Scandinavian eats, according to the latest data available.
Romania’s ice-cream market is put at around EUR170 million in retail, according to ZF calculations based on data from market research company Euromonitor.
On this segment, Betty Ice competes with other Romanian producers such as Alpin 57 Lux, owned by Istrate family, Top Gel Prod, controlled by entrepreneur Petre Popa or Kubo Ice Cream. Two international giants are also present on the market: Nestle, market leader according to ZF calculations, and Unilever.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)