On the other hand, demand from restaurant chains is dwindling, as deliveries have been unable to compensate for the normal volumes restaurants generate when they are open for business.
“Demand has gone up a lot, because companies used to rely a lot on imports, which have hardly been possible in the past few weeks, so orders placed with local producers like us have increased. We have many customers in the food sector and in the chemical sector. We used to make containers for companies that made disinfectants even before, but in low amounts. Now demand has gone through the roof,” says Cosmin Buzaianu, sales and marketing manager of Electric SRL and son of the company founders Liliana and Tone Nicu Buzaianu.
Electric Focsani sees revenue of more than EUR5 million and makes various types of packaging.
“We have signed a deal with Farmec to supply certain types of packaging for the disinfectants they are going to make. We also work with pharmaceutical companies such as Fiterman Pharma (Iasi). We’re working harder than before; we go to work even on Sundays.”
Dunapack, a cardboard packaging manufacturer held by Austria’s Prinzhorn, saw an increase in demand for packaging from the food sector.
“We keep working because if we don’t the companies in the food and pharmaceutical sectors can’t make any sales,” says Anastasious Panayotopolos, general manager of the Sfantu Gheorghe plant of Dunapack.
Dunapack inaugurated a new plant in Bolintin Deal near Bucharest in 2019, following a EUR45 million investment, to add to the Sfantu Gheorghe plant. Dunapack customers include Heineken, BAT, Dr. Oetker and eMag.
The top 15 manufacturers on the local cellulose and paper market posted almost RON3 billion revenue together in 2018, flat on 2017, according to the 2019 edition of ZF’s `Cei mai mari jucatori din economie’ (Key players in the economy) yearbook.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)