“I saw (this year i.e.) new residential projects of various sizes throughout the entire country and constant decorative product consumption, but no reasons for an unusual growth of the market,” says Vacaroiu, adding construction sector has been somewhat livelier in 2015.
The paint and coatings sector is still subject to price pressure and most manufacturers and importers focus on special offers and promotional campaigns, the executive added.
Policolor-Orgachim group budgeted EUR65.5 million revenue this year, an increase of 24% on 2014 and posted EUR28.3 million consolidated sales in the first half, 15% higher than the year-ago period.
The paint and coatings industry and other industries need an improvement in consumer sentiment that would lead to a healthy development of the economy and a greater volume of investments in both new construction projects and renovations, Vacaroiu says.
“Continuing investments in the sector is a challenge and we hope both developers and public investors will continue allocating funds to keep this year’s resurgence going. We are witnessing a fragile duality, with consumption encouraged and supported while investments are overlooked. This duality leads to a fake growth, which is not fully covered by the real economy.”
Policolor is now building a new plant on an industrial site previously owned by Chimester in western Bucharest, after having sold the current Policolor site in the east of the city for EUR18.3 million to businessmen Robertino Georgescu and Dan Dragulin, developers of Metropolitan real estate complexes, last year.
Policolor is part of the Policolor-Orgachim group held by investment fund RC2 and only has an automotive paint plant left in Romania, while the rest of paint and coating products are made in the production facilities in Bulgaria.
Competition in Romania includes Fabryo-Atlas Paints, Koeber, Daw Benta and Deutek.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)