The local coffee market is estimated at EUR300 million in 2011, according to ZF data.
All competitors on this market were very active in terms of communication and point of sale activities in the first half, thus influencing coffee consumption. The market saw growth in both value and volume, says Andreas Kouroumalis, Business Manager Beverages with Nestle Romania, one of the leading players on the local coffee market.
Nestle, whose revenue in Romania stood at EUR156.7 million last year, slightly up on 2010, sells a wide range of products – sweets, coffee, baby and pet food and does not reveal the exact share coffee has in its business. Its competitors on this market are Strauss, Cafea Fortuna and Tchibo Romania.
Nestle officials say that all the coffee market segments posted growth compared with last year; the most dynamic were the smallest ones, coffee beans and specialties.
Kouroumalis says Romanians are still looking for promotions when buying and more and more of them choose soluble coffee.
Although he would not provide exact figures about the market or consumption, Nestle Romania’s representative said his company posted significant growth across all the segments it operates on in the first half, and especially for coffee specialties.
Nestle’s brand NESCAFE was the coffee brand with the fastest growth last year as in the years before, Kouroumalis said. All the coffee specialties are made in the company’s plant in Timisoara (western Romania), which is a great advantage because of the local know-how for product development and production.
He says Romanians are big fans of coffee, historically speaking, and drink quite a lot of it, along with water, soft drinks and milk. Moreover, coffee is a ritual to Romanians, who drink it very often and find it hard to replace. According to International Coffee Organization, Romania ranks 49th in the world’s coffee drinking ranking, with 2.3 kilos per capita, lagging far behind countries like Finland and Norway, which drink 12 and 9.9 kilos per capita.
As a result, there is great growth potential on this market in Romania, Andreas Kouroumalis believes.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)