The company’s net sales stood at 212.7 million lei (EUR47.6 million) in January-May and the sales brokered amounted to RON2.6 billion.
Interbrands’ revenue increase was due in part to organic growth. The company expanded the distribution area for the Kraft products, continued to improve the online shop where partners can order products by adding new items from such producers as Angeli, Scandia, Riso Scotti and Coca-Cola and is looking at acquisition opportunities, said Rand Sherif, its chief executive officer.
Consumer spending went up by merely 3.6% in the first four months of the year, according to the National Statistics Institute data, after having gone down 20% from 2009 through 2011.
Rand Sherif does not think the increase in the company’s revenue was generated by the increase in consumer spending, but by Interbrands’ quality of service, expansion of distribution area and of the online business.
Interbrands is the largest FMCG distribution company, with RON488 million in net sales last year, up 15% on 2010. The company brokered product sales of RON6.5 billion, 25% more than in the previous year, as a result of the decline in cigarette contraband.
Interbrands has been the distributor of the Kent cigarettes (produced by British American Tobacco, the leader of the local cigarette market) since 1997 and then expanded its client portfolio by including Kotanyi, Procter&Gamble, Henkel, Nestle Nutrition, Love Plus, Tchibo, 3M, Comceh, Kraft Foods and Angeli.
BAT has a market share of about 52% and Interbrands as its partner serves 40,000 clients a week. As BAT’s sales are increasing on the Romanian market so do the sales of its distributor.
After three years of crisis, the company posted more than one million euros in net profit in 2011, compared with the about EUR1.1 million losses of 2010. (EUR1=RON4.463)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)