In some cases sales during the winter holidays may account for 20% to 25% of the full-year figures. This would mean Romanians spend more than EUR60 million on wine at this time of the year.
Winemakers officials say they are getting positive signals from the market this season, when sales are higher compared with the same time in 2011. However, the week before Christmas will be decisive for the sales.
“The fourth quarter of every year is a good season for wine sales (…). Sales at this time of the year account for more than 16% of the annual sales,” said the officials of Cramele Recas, a business owned Cox, Gheorghe Iova and Ioan Georgiu families.
The company expects sales of more than EUR20 million this year, therefore winter holidays should generate over EUR3.3 million of that.
Recas officials say they have noticed the market shifting towards wine in 1.5 liter and 3 liter bottles in 2012, as well as an increase in the demand for premium wines.
Murfatlar, too, noticed the same trend about expensive wines.
“There are two major trends now: the increase in consumption of premium and superpremium wines stimulated by the increase in the gift segment and the promotions, which attract occasional consumers mostly (…),” said Daniel Negrescu, brand manager of Murfatlar. The company filed for insolvency this year to reorganize.
Murfatlar, whose brands include Zestrea Murfatlar, Zaraza, Lacrima lui Ovidiu, Arezan, Trei Hectare and Sec de Murfatlar, is controlled by the Dobronauteanu brothers.
Negrescu says Murfatlar invested in the premium wine segment this year and sales on this niche picked up. Its new brand is M1.Crama Atelier.
“Compared with the economic growth times the consumption peaks such as Christmas have flattened quite a lot. Growth of 20% to 30% (compared with a regular month i.e.) are considered good for December. Growth is significant in the week before the Christmas and sales may triple. The same thing happens in the two or three days before the New Year’s Eve,” Daniel Negrescu said.
Vincon Vrancea, a business held by Luchi Georgescu, realized the potential of the high-priced wine and launched the Ambrosio range on December 1. This is the company’s first superpremium wine collection sold for on-premise segment. The company also announced it would invest EUR3 million in 2013 and 2014 to build a premium and superpremium winemaking facility in Husi (eastern Romania).
“We expect demand and purchases to surge after December 12 like every year. Many customers wait for the holidays to begin or for special offers from stores. A segment that starts growing in November for Cramele Recas is corporate orders,” Cramele Recas officials said.
The company’s data show it is on course for 18% higher revenue in 2012.
Winter holidays have an even stronger impact on the sales of luxury wine stores. Le Manoir, for instance, which operates the Comtesse du Barry stores, gets 25% of its revenue at this time of the year.
“Demand for wine is higher at this time of the year and higher than in the same time in 2011. The reasons are the year-end gifts and the parties organized (…),” says Cristi Preotu, associate manager with Le Manoir.
He added that the most expensive wine sold lately was Chateau Latour (a three bottle box that cost 18,000 lei or about EUR4,000). People are mostly looking for Romanian and imported red wines at this time of the year, Preotu said.
The local wine market estimated at about EUR300 million has been shrinking since 2009. Christmas is therefore a breath of fresh air for companies in this industry, which continued to launch new products especially high-priced ones.
Taking into account that 20% to 25% of sales are made at this time of the year, revenue should reach more than EUR60 million.
“I estimate wine demand in Lerida International’s case will go up by 35% until the end of the year, compared with the year-ago period,” said Bogdan Ciocoveanu, general manager of Lerida International. The company makes 15% to 20% of its annual sales in December.
The company was established by the Ion Matei family in 1993 and posted EUR4.5 million revenue in 2011 according to Finance Ministry data.
Its introduced the Francis Ford Coppola wines and premium French wines such as Henri Bourgeois and Guy Saget on the Romanian market.
Romania’s wine industry could be divided into two segments: large companies like Murfatlar, Cotnari, Jidvei, Vincon and others, with tens of millions of euros in revenue, which sell wine on both the on-premise and off-premise segment and small companies, which are either newcomers or have been in business for a while, and chose to stay on the on-premise segment.
The newest companies on the market relied on EU funds; winegrowing is one of the few industries that absorbed all the EU funds available.
Romania ranks 10th among world’s wine producers by the amount of land used for vineyards and most of its wine goes to domestic consumers. The 2012 harvest was low because of the drought but very good quality-wise.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)