“The 2011 decline was largely due to the lack of financing on the construction supplies market in general and on the ceramic tiles market in particular. Customers had relatively little money, banks were more cautious in funding investment projects and construction companies were more reluctant to take risks,” said Catalin Rotaru, country manager of KAI Ceramics, the local division of the Bulgarian group.
Rotaru expects KAI’s sales to increase by more than 25% in 2011 from 2010 to over EUR21 million. KAI posted EUR17 million revenue in Romania in 2010, of which KAI Ceramics generated EUR8 million and the rest were direct sales from Bulgaria.
“We managed to achieve this goal (the 25% growth i.e.) also as a result of the more than EUR6 million investment in a new manufacturing line early this year that led to an increase in capacity to about 20 million square meters per year,” says Rotaru, adding that Bulgaria became one of the top suppliers of ceramic tiling on the Romanian market.
2011 was a year of slower revenue growth, a year of stabilization, of consolidation of market position and adjustment to local demands, KAI Ceramics official explains.
KAI considered building a plant in Romania before the crisis, but now it no longer has such plans.
Rotaru says that 2011 came with an increase in the share of sales through do-it-yourself networks to about 35% of total. “This is similar with the trend on the mature markets, where about 50% of ceramic tiling is sold through this channel (the DIY stores),” KAI’s official says. The retailers that carry KAI products include Baumax, Praktiker and Bricostore.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)