“The food VAT to 9% has and continues to help us, it compensates for the still low purchasing power. Statistics show an increase in the GDP, but the purchasing power remains low. The VAT cut was a tremendous help to us, and even though we did not grow that much, we kept the business steady.”
Unicarm posted growth of 5% in sales in the first half compared with the year-ago period. Last year’s sales stood at 645 million lei (EUR145 million). Unicarm is a producer of meat and meat products, dairy, ice cream and bread. Meat generates 60% of its sales.
It also has its own retail chain of about 100 store where its sells its own products, as well as other types of products such as vegetables, beverages, sweets and detergents.
“We will invest in several stores, but not too many of them. We will not reach Bucharest; we will focus on the towns on a 300-kilometer radius around Satu Mare County because stores farther than that are hard to manage. We also export our products, but are not looking for growth in that department. We opened our stores precisely to sell our products there.” (EUR1=RON4.4606)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)