Danone was the market leader by sales again after having posted a slight increase in its revenue in lei (and 4% decline in euros) and its profit margin stood at 2%.
The only top five company to have ended the year in the red was FrieslandCampina, which had posted EUR1.6 million profit in 2011 and slight growth in business. On the other hand, the only Romanian-held company among the top five, Albalact, saw profit rise to EUR1.6 million.
The dairy market continued to decline last year, as the dwindling purchasing power and the shift in buying priorities of the Romanian consumers caused a 20% to 25% decline in volume, according to previous estimates of Dorin Cojocaru, general manager of the dairy business owners’ association in Romania APRIL.
The market decreased from EUR2 billion in 2008 to about EUR800 million last year.
One of the most important parts of the dairy market is the yogurt segment, where Danone is in the lead, with 48% market share in terms of value. Danone’s brands (Nutriday, Activia etc) compete with Albalact’s Zuzu and FrieslandCampina’s Mili.
Romanians eat 7 kilos of yogurt a year or one cup per week, which puts Romania on one of the bottom places in the ranking of European countries. A Pole eats 17 kilos of yogurt a year, a Bulgarian eats 22 kilos and a French 35 kilos.
Now that France’s Bongrain bought Delaco and Lactalis acquired Dorna Lactate, the only smaller local producer still battling multinationals on the EUR300 million-cheese market is Covalact. The top five cheese producers with a market share of 62% in value and about 70% in volume were Bongrain, Friesland, Hochland, Lactalis and Covalact in April 2012 – March 2013 according to a Nielsen study.
Milk and yogurt are the most popular products with Romanians, according to publicly available data. Yet the major producers in this business, too, are experiencing a phenomenon affecting the entire food industry, i.e. private labels.
Best-selling volume milk brands on the local market are the private labels of retailers, followed by Zuzu (Albalact), Napolact (Friesland), Mili and Ladorna (Lactalis), according to Nielsen provided December 2012-January 2013 data.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)