The two companies account for more than half of the net profit posted by the entire beverage industry, which employs more than 16,000 people.
Companies in the beverage (soft drinks, mineral water, spirits, beer and wine) industry, posted more than RON630 million net profit and about RON200 million losses in 2015, according to Finance Ministry data.
The most profitable beverage company, Coca-Cola HBC Romania, made RON243 million profit last year, slightly lower than the record profit of 2008, the last year of economic boom for Romania. Profit margin stood at more than 11%, one of the highest on the market.
On the other hand, Heineken Romania is one of the few brewers that managed to stay profitable during the crisis, when consumer spending went down. Its profit margin last year stood at more than 9%.
Third most profitable beverage industry company is Romanian-held Romaqua Group, the bottler of the Borsec mineral water and of the Albacher beer. Romaqua posted record profit of almost RON47 million last year. On the other hand, Romaqua’s and Coca-Cola HBC’s competitor on the soft drinks market in Romania, PepsiCo, posted losses in this country.
Fourth and fifth most profitable last year were beer market leader Ursus Breweries, and Tymbark Maspex, one of the most important soft drinks companies.
The top ten also includes winemakers Cramele Recas and Jidvei, according to the ZF analysis. The ten most profitable companies in the beverage industry account for more than 80% of its profits.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)