“The economy was favorable, although we did have some challenges on the coffee market. Our sales rose by 25% last year, and we also saw a surge in the number of new customers,” Tibor Dobri told ZF in an interview.
“We doubled the sales on the on-premise segment compared with 2014. Romania had one of the highest growth rates of the group.”
The company posted 27.8 million lei (EUR6.13 million) revenue in 2015, according to Finance Ministry data. Therefore its 2016 revenue should have gone beyond RON30 million lei last year, ZF has calculated based on the information the company provided.
Julius Meinl premium coffee brand has now reached about 2,300 on-premise locations and several international retail chains. Tibor Dobri says retail is not part of the company’s development strategy, though, as Julius Meinl focuses on the on-premise segment.
The company has a small range of products available in retail locations and its focus on the on-premise segment is in line with the group’s strategy to concentrate the business on cafés, restaurants and hotels, Julius Meinl Romania’s managing director says, adding the on-premise segment is where the company wants to be a leader.
The coffee market had to deal with a challenge in mid last year when the ban on smoking was introduced affecting the sales of cafés, considering the strong association of coffee and cigarettes in Romania.
“We’d seen the market grow since mid-2015 and demand has been on the rise every month ever since, Romanians have become more educated about the products and more demanding about them. Once the smoking ban was introduced, we saw a decline in consumption, which worsened with the cold season.”
Julius Meinl managing director says this situation lasted longer than in other countries, where consumption bounced back after about three months.
Tibor Dobri is optimistic about 2017 and expects sales on the on-premise segment to go up by more than 20%. (EUR1=RON4.5337)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)