IT&C retailers say sales up 30-60% in Q1, telecom industry still ailing
eMAG, Pcfun, Pcgarage and EvoMag, some of the biggest local
IT&C retailers, saw sales up 30 to 60% in the first quarter
year-on-year, according to the data they made available to
ZF.
eMAG, the domestic number one IT&C retailer posted 60% growth
of its business to almost 30 million euros, according to Radu
Apostolescu, vice-president and development director of the
company. He did not provide further details about what made this
growth possible.
On the other hand, the IT&C wholesale and retail group
controlled by Marius Ghenea posted 30% higher revenues in the first
quarter. The results, as Ghenea says, were made possible because of
the constant expansion of the product range and online promotion
campaigns, amid growing interest in online purchases among
customers. Ghenea controls a number of online retailers, such as
Pcfun and Pcgarage, while Fit Distribution is also a
wholesaler.
IT&C retailer EvoMag, too, posted 58% higher sales in the first
quarter.
It is not yet clear, though, whether the sales of the
above-mentioned retailers equal overall growth of computer sales.
While Acer, the market leader in 2010, announced stagnation in
first quarter, HP, which started to also sell some of its
lower-cost models in Romania, posted higher sales.
"The market is not recovering as fast as we had expected," said
Bogdan Iftemie, Acer's sales manager.
There seems to be a similar feeling as far as the industry of
telecom giants Orange, Vodafone, Romtelecom, Cosmote and UPC is
concerned, whose first quarter business amounted to almost 800
million euros. Although they will not announce their results any
sooner than next month, their cautious comments over the last few
months suggest the market is not growing for the time being.