On a price-conscious market that made Greek shareholders admit for the first time that they had to deal with aggressive promotions by competitors, Coca-Cola HBC Romania posted 83 million net income (EUR19 million) in 2013, almost half of the 2012 income, according to the company’s filing with the Finance Ministry and Trade Registry.
The revenue of the bottler fell by 7% to RON1.8 billion. These are the first data about the business of Coca-Cola HBC in Romania in 2013, a year where locally bottled volumes dropped 9%.
Coca-Cola HBC Romania changed its general manager, its chief financial officer and some of its marketing managers this year. Its new general manager as of June 1 is Jaak Mikkel, a 40-year old Macedonian executive. He replaced Stephane Batoux, 49, who had run the local operations of Coca-Cola HBC for two years and resigned his position, as the company said.
Jaak Mikkel found in Romania a company that has yet to recover from the crisis as proven by its dwindling sales.
Macedonians drink about 40 million liters of Coca-Cola beverages a year, while Romanians drink 20 times more.
Coca-Cola’s main rivals on the Romanian soft drinks market, where consumption stands at about 2.8 billion liters or 130 to 140 liters per capita, are Borsec (Romaqua Group), Frutti Fresh (European Drinks), Pepsi (PepsiCo) and Tymbark.
Borsec posted 2% sales decline 2013 but returned to profit, while Tymbark saw 7% higher sales last year. The two are the only Coca-Cola rivals to have made their financial results public so far.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)