The latest data provided by Strauss shows the total coffee market fell by 1.1% in volume last year, while going up 10% in value, as the price of roasted ground coffee increased by 10.8% per kilo. According to research company Nielsen’s data, Strauss Romania’s market share by volume stood at 31.5% on the roasted ground coffee segment and at 20.8% on the soluble coffee segment in 2011.
Marius Melesteu, general manager of Strauss Romania, said the negative trend of the market had overlapped with the unprecedented rise in the coffee bean prices on the international market last year.
This hurt the company’s margins because it could not include the increase in the raw material price in the final price due to the low purchasing power of the Romanian consumers.
As all cost categories were analyzed, the number of employees fell from 352 in 2010 to 291 at the end of 2011. The policy will continue into 2012, when the company expects to end the year with 270 employees.
Strauss is counting on a slight rebound in coffee drinking this year. It said a Romanian drinks about 2.3 kilos of coffee a year, which is three times less than in the Nordic countries.
An avenue for growth the company is looking at for medium term is exports. Whereas they accounted for 4% of the sales last year, they should reach 5% in 2012 and about 10% in three to five years. Besides coffee, Strauss Romania also sells tea, which it imports from Germany.
Its product portfolio includes about 120 products at the moment. Strauss is the only major company to own a production facility on the local market, which is located in Bucharest.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)