Thus, Rom ended last year with a sales volume of above 30 million pieces, valued by ZF at over EUR6-7 million, compared with the 17.4 million pieces sold by Snickers.
The bar segment is one of the largest categories on the chocolate market, reaching almost EUR60 million.
“The chocolate bar market was relatively constant in 2013, dropping by 0.6% in volume and rising by 0.6% by value in December 2012-November 2013 period, reaching 258 million lei (EUR58 million),” stated the representatives of Nestle Romania, leader of the confectionery market, quoting market research company Nielsen.
Nestle Romania, with EUR150 million in revenue last year, holds bar brand Lion in its portfolio, the fourth best-selling one on this segment. In 2013, Swiss-held Nestle, which has a wafers plant in Timisoara, sold around 11 million pieces of Lion.
Romania has just three large sweets plants left, Kandia of Bucharest, Heidi Chocolat of Pantelimon (Ilfov) and Nestle in Timisoara, and this can also be seen on the bar market, where just three of the best-selling brands are manufactured domestically.
Rom, Fagaras and Papi brands of Kandia Dulce’s portfolio are the only “made in Romania” ones, while Snickers, Bouty, Twix, Mars held by Mars Romania, Lion (Nestle), Kinder Bueno of Ferrero or Roxy held by Turkey’s Simsek are not produced in Romania.
Austria’s Meinl family has come to control Romania’s only two large chocolate plants, Kandia and Heidi. The best-selling products of Mars Romania’s portfolio, Snickers, Bounty, Twix and Mars, sold almost 43 million pieces last year.
According with Carrefour Online website, the cheapest bar is Fagaras (30 grams), with a price of RON0.65, followed by Rom with raisins (28 grams), with RON1.05, while a Snickers (50 grams) costs RON1.54. The most expensive bar is Kinder Bueno (43 grams) with a price of RON2.5.
Romania’s best-selling chocolate bar, Rom, has a 50-year history, during which its form has remained unchanged. Today, Kandia Dulce is the largest producer of chocolate, with revenue of EUR39 million in 2013.
Rom, Magura and Fagaras, part of the company’s portfolio, have a sales volume of 77 million pieces, according to ZF calculations. Fagaras in 2013 had sales of above 13 million pieces, being the third best-selling chocolate bar in Romania.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)