The British - Dutch consumer goods maker Unilever began producing detergents for Western Europe in Romania in October last year.
The company had produced 6,000 tones of detergents for the German market in Ploiesti until December 2003, but the chairman of Unilever South Central Europe (USCE) Martina Kastler hopes to expand the output to other markets, as well. USCE is based in Bucharest.
"The company decided to have the Romania-based plant produce detergents for the western market following surveys conducted in several countries," Kastler said. She has been running the USCE operations for almost a year now and was included in the team that decided to expand the company to Eastern Europe in early '90s.
"Romania is our strongest centre, as this is where we started our expansion in Eastern Europe. We first invested in the Dero detergent plant in Ploiesti, secondly we acquired the margarine factory based in Targu Mures, then we invested in the Knorr business in Otopeni. We doubled the output capacity of the detergent plant in the last three years and now it produces 100,000 tones per year," Kastler mentioned. USCE posted 138 million euros in turnover in 2003, up 26% from 2002.
Out of this amount, Romania contributed as much as 92 million euros, the increase in this case reaching 21% from 2002.
The hotels, restaurants and catering chiefly boosted sales, followed by the foodstuffs, which weighed 30% of the total sales, while the personal and household care segment accounted for 20%, as specified by Kastler.
"Our next challenge is to achieve growth for our international brands," USCE chairman mentioned.
According to a survey conducted by the market research company MEMRB and published by USCE, between September and October 2003, Unilever's market shares were as follows: 17.4% for deodorants, 29.8% - detergents, 15.2% - shampoo, 22.6% - margarine (28.4% with Delma and 16.8% with Rama) and 68.1% for spices (with Knorr Delikat).
Unilever's main competitors are Procter & Gamble, Colgate - Palmolive and Henkel.
"I cannot agree that the markets we are operating on declined. We sometimes saw increases from the value point of view, but the volumes kept constant," Kastler said.
Unilever invested in the region more than $120 million, out of which the investments in Romania represent some 90%. claudia.covaci@zf.ro
