This is the first rise reported by the company since 2008, when Coca-Cola HBC sales started on a downward path. This rise is an important indication of consumption rebound, considering that one Romanian buys 43 liters of beverages from Coca-Cola’s portfolio per year.
The bottler reported a total net profit of almost EUR220 million between 2008 and 2012 in Romania, i.e. a margin of almost 10%.
The company halved its number of employees since 2005, having closed down three plants. In 2012 Coca-Cola HBC had an average number of 1,642 employees.
“This year we hired 104 people,” Mugurel Radulescu, CCHBC’s public affairs and communications manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic Romania and the Republic of Moldova within CCHBC, told ZF.
With a consumption of 43 liters of Coca-Cola drinks per capita, Romania is one of the giant’s largest markets in the region. Romania is ahead of countries such as Poland, where consumption of products distributed by Coca-Cola does not exceed 26 liters per capita, and Ukraine, with 11 liters per capita, shows a ZF analysis based on the latest report of the Greek parent company of Coca-Cola HBC Romania. Only Bulgarians and Hungarians consume less Coca-Cola products than Romanians, i.e. 44 liters and 47 liters respectively in 2012.
Coca-Cola, which entered the Romanian market more than 20 years ago, has always been reluctant to make statements to the press, and only publishes yearly data on sales, not on sales by value. Last year Coca-Cola HBC recorded a 1% rise in volumes sold in Romania, to 923 million liters, according to ZF calculations. Around 65% are sales of carbonated drinks.
Lower water sales
Although mineral water and fizzy drinks were the main growth drivers of the overall soft drinks market, this was not the case for Coca-Cola. In fact last year only carbonated drinks helped Coca-Cola’s sales rebound, with the segment rising 5.3%, while Coca-Cola’s sales of mineral water and non-carbonated drinks fell 5.4%.
Coca-Cola has a mineral water production facility in Vatra Dornei (northern Romania), where the Dorna, Izvorul Alb and Poiana Negri are produced.
The company has production facilities left in Timisoara and Ploiesti, after in the past few years it has cut down its activity and closed down three plants in Oradea, Bucharest and Iasi.
In the ranking of the largest mineral water brands by volumes sold between December 2011 and November 2012, no. 1 is Borsec, followed by store chains’ private labels and by Izvorul Alb, according to data supplied previously by market research company Nielsen.
(English version by Daniela Stoican)