Coty Romania, the domestic branch of Coty, the US cosmetics producer, plans to reach turnover growth of at least 15% for the fiscal year that is to end on June 31, to 14.95m US dollars (12.4m euros).
"We are actually about to exceed this target. Romania is among the top three countries in Europe in terms of the annual sales growth pace," said Marian Dumitrescu, marketing manager with Coty Romania. The company reported turnover worth 13 million dollars (10.7m euros) for fiscal year 2004, 14% higher year-on-year.
Coty Romania was set up in late 1996, and also coordinates operations carried in Bulgaria and Moldova. The Coty brands cover several categories, such as women''s and men''s perfumes (Isabella Rossellini, Celine Dion, Pierre Cardin, Esprit), personal care products (Adidas) and decorative cosmetics (Rimmel, Astor, Miss Sporty).
According to research by MEMRB for March-April 2005, Coty Romania owns 32% of the women''s perfumes market and 28% of the men''s segment. "We intend to strengthen our position on the women''s and men''s perfume segments and to get 10% of the men''s and women''s deodorants market," said Marian Dumitrescu.
Speaking of consumer habits in Romania and the United States, Dumitrescu said "the European market is quite different from the American one. We are very glad that the evolution of consumer habits in Romania very much resembles that of the neighbouring countries, as the gap between the East and the Western developed states is gradually narrowing down."
The Romanian cosmetics and personal care products market is assessed at about 250 million euros per annum. The main players are Avon, Oriflame, L''Oreal, Garnier and Farmec Cluj.
Coty Romania is part of US company Coty, which last month acquired Unilever Cosmetics International for 800 million dollars (662m euros), this way becoming the world''s largest perfume company.
Coty operates in more than 25 countries and last year logged global sales of $1.9bn (1.56bn euros). The company is made up of two units, Lancaster Group and Coty Beauty, both of them including internationally renowned brands such as Adidas, Rimmel, Jennifer Lopez, and Davidoff. lavinia.marin@zf.ro
