Spread throughout the entire country from Satu Mare to Bucharest and from Orastie to Oradea, the largest sporting goods plants in Romania posted more than RON170 million revenue in 2013, when they had more than 1,500 employees. They make buckles and inner boots for ski boots, helmets, paintball balls and scuba diving equipment for international brands like Salomon and Rossignol.
ZF compiled a ranking of the largest companies in this business by looking at all companies that include “sport” or “sporting” in their NACE code and chose only those companies with more than RON10 million revenue.
The six companies in this ranking account for almost 94% of the market, considering total production of sporting goods reached RON181 million. Though still a small market, concentrated into the hands of a very low number of players, sporting goods production doubled during the crisis (2008-2013). The ranking does not include the plants that make bikes, because they operate under a different NACE.
Romania’s geographic location, the low wages and the available workforce especially in cities like Gilau and Orastie where employment options are limited have attracted manufacturers of such goods. Still, the owners of the plants are not the major sporting goods manufacturers, but local or foreign entrepreneurs who work for them under toll manufacturing contracts.
“When a foreign company decides to manufacture in another country, wage costs are a very important factor,” says Florin Godean, country manager of temporary employment company Adecco Romania.
“There are many items that are made in Romania and our country is not chosen as a manufacturing destination because it is a major market, as well. Purchasing power is low and some products carry high price tags (…) so they are made strictly to be exported.”
The local sporting goods manufacturing industry pays better than the textile or automotive on average, Florin Godean says, as workers who make buckles for ski boots or helmets are paid 10% to 20% more than the minimum wage (less than RON800 in net amount per month).
The leading manufacturer of sporting goods is Orastie-based Chimsport, which makes parts for Salomon ski boots and for Mavic bicycles, both brands of the Amer group, one of the largest global sporting goods manufacturer.
Chimsport’s NACE was “Manufacture of sports goods” until 2013, after which it changed. The company was included in the ranking because the ranking uses 2013 data. It posted over RON57 million revenue in 2013, contributing over 30% to the overall revenue of the industry. It became the leader in the ranking after its business increased by almost 50%, beating High Tech Tecnosky (HTT), which is close to RON50 million sales with less than 200 employees.
HTT was established in Gilau, Cluj County, in 2007 and makes buckles and straps for ski boots, helmets for winter sports and industrial spray guns, according to the information it published in a job ad on an international website. It main customers for sporting goods are Italian companies and HTT branded equipment is sold in Europe, Japan, US and Russia.
Its local representatives could not be reached for comment by press time.
A company that saw one of the highest increases in revenue was Omnia Plast SRL, which makes ski boots and scuba diving equipment in a plant in Chiajna, Bucharest. Its 2013 revenue was 38.5% higher than in 2012 and it had almost 100 employees more than in the previous year. The corporate website shows Omnia Plast to be a part of the Sunino group, which owns six more companies in Italy, Romania (Bucharest), the Republic of Moldova and even India, which make plastic containers and packaging, toys and promotional items. The same site shows the famous ski boots of France’s Rossignol.
On the other hand, Roball Campina, a company established in 2013 that makes paintballs for an international brand posted RON10.8 million revenue in one year alone.
The largest companies that make sporting goods in Romania also include Casco Group, which manufacturers helmets and Pereno (part of the Piastor group), which makes buckles for ski boots for Salomon and Atomic.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)