The company, which controls one third of Romania’s toothpaste market and also holds key positions on the personal care and home care segments, has just 79 employees left in Romania, from 262 in 2008.
Colgate-Palmolive in 2008 closed down the plant it had in Brasov, where it manufactured Super Cristal toothpaste and Norvea cream and that employed 190 people. Thus, the US giant retained only distribution operations locally.
In this context, the number of employees fell to less than one third, while revenue decline calculated in Romanian lei stood at just 8% in 2008-2013 period.
By comparison, each employee of InterstarChim, which has production, as well as distribution operations in Romania, brought almost RON500,000, that is six times less. The two companies vie on the personal care and home care segments.
On these segments, the US-held company also battles other giants, namely Procter&Gamble, Unilever and Henkel. The first two have both distribution and production activities in Romania. Revenue is largely derived from the distribution segment (80%). Before shutting down the Brasov plant, Colgate had a similar business model.
Colgate-Palmolive entered Romania’s market in 1992, when it set up, together with Norvea Brasov, Colgate-Palmolive Romania. The company opened production units in Brasov and Bucharest. In Bucharest, the US company had bought Stela soap plant, but activities were halted, the plant was demolished and a Kaufland hypermarket was built on the land plot of Obor.
In 2006, the US giant acquired 24% in Norvea Brasov to hike to 100% its stake in the Romanian subsidiary. Two years later, the company announced it was closing down several production units worldwide, including the one of Brasov.
Now, Romania has no other toothpaste plant left. On this market, valued at RON203 million (EUR46 million), Colgate-Palmolive still leads, with a 36.3% market share. However, the company’s products are manufactured abroad.
Colgate Palmolive is one of the most discreet players on the Romanian market, with the only available information about the company being the figures posted once a year on the Finance Ministry’s website.
According to 2013 data, the company generated revenue of RON240 million (EUR54 million), down in lei by 2% on the year. Profit reached RON5.7 million (EUR1.3 million), over 50% higher than in 2012, but over tenfold smaller than in 2009. The margin thus narrowed to 2% from 22% in 2009.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)