The company therefore returned to growth after an 8% decline in 2013.
The bottler also returned to net profit in 2014, following the 2013 and 2012 losses that stood at more than RON90 million, according to ZF’s calculations.
“Our return to profit is because of the increase of our sales volumes at a faster rate than the rest of the market (…),” said Levent Yuksel, vice president general manager of PepsiCo Greater Balkans & South Eastern Europe Region Franchise.
PepsiCo posted the highest growth of three largest non-alcoholic ready to drink beverage companies, as its main rival Coca-Cola HBC Romania saw only 1% increase in sales year-on-year, while Romaqua Group (Borsec), posted 5% decline.
Last year was difficult for the companies in the NARTD business, as the market shrank slightly compared with 2013, according to the latest data supplied by market research company Canadean.
On the other hand, PepsiCo laid off more than 100 employees of the local beverage division, Quadrant-Amroq Beverages, which operates a plant in Dragomiresti, Ilfov County (near Bucharest).
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)