“Ice cream market is seasonal in Romania, consumption frequency is very high in the summer unlike the United Kingdom for instance, where 80% of the consumers buy ice cream all year long,” says Anca Severin, senior brand building manager refreshment with Unilever.
The local ice cream market amounted to EUR150 million in 2012, according to Unilever, which did not provide any estimate for 2013. Each Romanian therefore spent EUR7.5 a year and less than one euro per month on ice cream. The main players in this business are Betty Ice (of Romanian entrepreneur Vasile Armean), Unilever and Nestle. Other smaller companies are Romanian-held Top Gel, Alpin 57 and Kubo Ice Cream.
Unilever South Central Europe, the company that handles the sales, ended last year with about 790 million lei (EUR178 million) revenue, up 9% on 2011.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)