The manufacturer also wants to expand presence in Europe and Asia.
“We started talks with a number of companies in Israel, China, France, UK, Germany and Russia. We want to work with companies in those countries, even several companies (in each country i.e.). You never work with too many companies,” Marc Costache, sales manager RoStar, which is held by entrepreneur Halil Bulut, told ZF.
Exports currently account for 5% of the revenue of the company, which stood at 42 million lei (almost EUR10 million) in 2014, according to the latest available data on the Finance Ministry website.
RoStar sells almost its entire range of products abroad, among which the Petit Beure, Max and Daydream cream biscuits, Dita diet biscuits and the BigFox sandwich biscuits.
Marc Costache says it is not easy for a Romanian company to find export partners, but is not an impossible thing, either, and price is a decisive factor when forging commercial ties abroad.
RoStar, which started production of biscuits almost twenty years ago, is not the only local producer of biscuits and sweets with a presence abroad. Competitors on this segment include Croco in Onesti, Bacau County (eastern Romania) and Eurex Alimentare (Ulker). Turkey’s ETI is currently building a facility in Craiova from where it plans to export.
RoStar set out to boost exports and make new investments in product development and equipment upgrades this year, Costache says.
Biscuit consumption stands at about 700 grams per capita in Romania, twenty times lower than in Spain and France, according to data previously supplied by RoStar.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)