“Last year I saw traditional retail was alive and growing in Romania,” Mikkel says, adding he noticed the small stores were able to survive because of the economic growth to a certain extent and he expects them to keep going. Traditional retail will remain a significant part of the overall retail, the Coca-Cola HBC Romania official said.
Despite the difficult times traditional retail went through due to the crisis and the expansion of modern retail, only the small, unprofitable stores closed and those that weathered the crisis benefited from the rise in consumer spending last year. Retail sales were up almost 9% in 2015, which most actors of the market noticed.
There are 110,000 stores and on-premise locations in Romania, according to a survey by market research company Vektor Marktforschung. Modern retail alone numbers more than 1,700 stores. Brands like Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, Dorna and Burn are available in more than 60% of the 110,000 in Romania. The bottler’s products were available in 56,000 sales locations (traditional and modern retailers and on-premise locations) in 2014, according to the information supplied by the company.
Coca-Cola HBC Romania posted 2.1 billion lei (EUR466 million) revenue last year, an increase of 16% on 2014. Profit doubled to RON243 million. (EUR1=RON4.5110)