“As far as we know, we are the number one on the ice cream market with an 18% to 20% market share. It is hard to stay in the lead and make profit,” says Vasile Armenean, owner of Betty Ice, a company with almost 90 million (EUR20 million) revenue.
The best-selling ice cream brands also include Top Gel and Amicii (Kubo Ice Cream), held by local entrepreneurs. Romanian entrepreneurs are the only ones who have ice cream factories in this country, while their multinational rivals Unilever (Algida) and Nestle import what they sell.
A consumption of 2.6 liters of ice cream per capita a year puts Romania close to the bottom of the consumption ranking, while Scandinavian countries eat three to four times more. This year has been good for the market so far, with both the weather and the VAT cut making ice cream producers optimistic.
While Betty Ice officials say the brand is the market leader, Unilever officials say that Algida has been on the top spot since September 2014.
“Our Algida (Napoca, Magnum, Big Milk etc.) ice cream division’s market share by value was 16.7% in January-May 2015, which puts us on the first place among companies in this business, according to market research company Nielsen,” said Bradut Costea, National Sales Manager Ice Cream Romania with Unilever South Central Europe. Unilever did not say whether its market data took into account the entire retail or just the sales through major retail chains.
Third in the ranking by sales was Nestle, according to Canadean data, which take into account modern and traditional retail, as well as sales through the hotel, restaurant and catering businesses. The five leading ice cream companies (Betty Ice, Algida, Nestle, Top Gel and Kubo Ice cream) account for 71% of the market by value.
Romanian ice cream market stood at RON2 billion last year, Canadean statistics show.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)