“The market has also been impacted by the bad weather. It was a harsh winter, many people would barely get out of the house to buy some bread let alone go buy a cell phone,” Sorin Manea said. “The market fell 10% in the first quarter, compared to the previous year. Sales of smartphones have continued the upward trend, thus, I estimate one million units will be sold this year.”
Asked about sales of Samsung cell phones, Manea said they rose in the first quarter too, but he would not provide more details. Samsung says it is a top player on the local market, both on the smartphone and feature phone segments.
According to market research company GfK, the total cell phone market, including smartphones, declined by almost 7% to EUR38 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011.
On the other hand, Gersim Impex, one of the largest cell phone dealers on the market, which posted EUR58 million revenue last year after winning a distribution contract with Samsung, saw 20% higher sales in the first four months of the year.
“Gersim’s sales rose by an average 20%,” Dan Stefanescu, general manager and company owner, told ZF.
About 3 million to 4 million cell phones are sold in Romania every year. Asked about his perception on this year’s market evolution, Manea said he expected either stagnation or a slight decline year-on-year. The South Korean-held company plans to boost market share in Romania despite stagnation in industry sales. As part of this strategy, Samsung opened its first branded store in partnership with the local subsidiary of French-held Avenir Telecom in the Feeria shopping center in Bucharest last week.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)