“We signed a partnership with Diamond in Portugal, which in turn is part of an American group. They handled the development of the Profi private label, from market surveys and focus groups, design, packaging and manufacturing. They negotiate with suppliers, so we will skip to getting the products,” says Daniel Cirstea, the Romanian executive who runs Profi.
The company had medium priced brands and worked with several local producers for them, but production was difficult to control as was keeping the same level of quality, Cirstea says, which is why the retailer signed a partnership with a specialized company. Profi uses the Proxi private label for low-priced products.
The decision to develop its own medium-price brand comes at a time when purchasing power has improved and this shows in spending. Romanian consumers are now going for more expensive products be they brand name or private label products.
“We will have 600 to 700 Profi branded products on shelves as of July.”
The retailer posted almost 6 billion lei (EUR1.26 billion) sales in 2018, a 25% increase on the previous year. It has more than 1,000 stores.(EUR1=RON4.7295)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)