“Exports were key to the growth in sales last year but local performance was good, too.”
The Italian executive who took the position with Heidi Chocolat in mid last year says he is optimistic about this year, which he believes will be good as the first quarter is about to end with double-digit growth. He is confident about 2015 and expects to end it with 10% to 20% growth.
Prior to becoming Heidi Chocolat managing director, the Italian executive had worked for Kraft Foods (Mondelez International), one of the world’s largest sweets and coffee groups. One of his positions in the group was managing director of Kraft Foods Bulgaria, which makes Romanian chocolate brand Poiana.
The growth of 10% in Heidi’s sales comes amid a single-digit (about 5%) growth in the consumption of tablets and pralines (the segments the company operates on), according to the data supplied by Franco del Fabbro. The company posted 76 million lei (EUR17.2 million) revenue and RON3.2 million profit in 2013, according to Finance Ministry data.
It preserved its market share in 2014 and plans to boost it in 2015, Heidi’s managing director says.
The company completed the expansion of the plant in Pantelimon town, Ilfov County, near Bucharest and is now installing new machinery. The expansion will enable it to meet production needs by 2020 and is not planning a new plant for the time being, Franco del Fabbro added.
Heidi Chocolat has become Romania’s largest chocolate exporter in the last few years, with deliveries to customers abroad accounting for about 50% of its sales. Heidi Chocolat’s owner is Austrian Meinl family via Kex Confectionery.
Meinl also owns Kandia Dulce (maker of Kandia and Rom) and Julius Meinl Romania, the importer of the premium coffee by the same name. Heidi Chocolat’s biggest export markets are Germany, Hungary, China and Canada. The company only exports products under its own brand and does not make private label products.
Germany will be its biggest export market this year, as it accounts for 10% of its sales. Heidi Chocolate got into the Real network in Germany in December last year, which means more than 300 hypermarkets. It will also enter a major network in the UK and its development in Asia is going well, Franco del Fabbro said.
Heidi plans to consolidate sales on the existing markets.
Its largest competitors on the EUR380 million sweets market in Romania are Mondelez, Kandia and Mars.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)