Baxi Romania, one of the most important suppliers of residential heating systems in Romania, hopes to boost its turnover to 14 million euros this year, over twice the level of last year, helped by the diversification of its product portfolio and consolidation of its service network.
"One of Baxi Romania''s strategic goals is to broaden its portfolio by introducing new products which will integrate state-of-the-art technologies. When we established the sales target we did not take into account the government subsidy programme for the replacement of gas stoves with heating systems. The impact of this is hard to estimate and very much depends on the final version adopted and the impact it will have on people," said Sever Scarlat, Baxi Romania''s executive manager.
This year''s sales target of 30,000 heating systems, if achieved, will make Baxi one of the top three on the market with a market share of 17.6%. This projected increase in sales for the two brands in Baxi''s portfolio - Baxi and Westen - would mean a level far higher than that of 2004 and of estimated market growth. The two brands will see fairly similar levels of sales, if the estimates prove correct: 16,000 units for Baxi heating systems and 14,000 units for Westen.
After the government announced its intention to subsidise the replacement of heating systems last month, importers became more optimistic and forecast the market would grow by at least 20% to 175,000 units, though natural gas prices are expected to increase by around 20% this winter. Initially, merchants expected sales to remain the same as last year (145,000 units or 75 million euros) and accused the authorities of trying to limit the number of voluntary disconnections from the centralised heating system by requesting more papers and costly approvals. The heating systems market fell last year by comparison with the end of 2003 when sales grew by 70% to 250,000 units.
On the other hand, producers of automated gas burners say the normative act through which the government intends to grant 25 million euros in subsidies for the installation of heating systems is putting them out of business.
Baxi sold 4,500 units in the first half of the year for a total of 2.4 million euros, an increase of 53% on 2004, despite the start of the year normally being considered an off-season. dan.zavoianu@zf.ro
