Six companies call the shots on coffee market

On a market valued at 250-300m euros, brand addiction has been leading to the same ranking of large companies for several years, despite the over 10m-euro annual promotion budgets thrown into the battle. Six large companies, Kraft Foods, Strauss, Nestle, Cafea Fortuna, Tchibo and Panfoods have dominated the market for many years, jointly generating over 90% of overall coffee sales domestically. The market "punished" Strauss for its brand change of 2008: the company lost market share and had weak performances after rebranding Elita into Doncafe, in the wake of 15m-euro investments. On the other hand, its biggest rivals, Kraft Foods and Nestle, have chosen to develop their product portfolios of the past years betting on the same brands. "Coffee is one of the food categories maintaining a high tonus of consumer loyalty to the brand even during crisis periods," says Bogdana Baltasiu, client sales & service manager with The Nielsen Company market research firm. Almost half of modern retail customers (48%) choose to go to another store when they do not find the coffee they look for on shelves.