Following the hot summer last year, most air conditioners importers forecast a 30% to 50% increase in sales this year. It did not happen this way, though. The several rains to have cooled things early this summer, when the "cold air" sales are in peak season simply ruined their plans.
Temperatures this summer were much lower than anticipated, so that the importers have come to deem it as an "impossible" one, which did nothing but decrease their sales.
This month, however, the weather has somehow started to "behave", meaning that the temperatures registered have often been higher than 35 degrees Celsius, so that the air conditioners sales went up, but the peak season of the year, that is June and July when people usually buy air conditioners to have a cool summer, had already passed.
"We had estimated the market to increase up to 50,000 units this year, that is more than 35%, but the unfavourable weather conditions made it impossible," specified Cornel Soare, representative of Genco, sole importer of General Electric.
Also Razvan Dinu, marketing manager with Whirlpool Romania, complains about the weather. "Weather was our worst enemy this year.
It is obvious that it upset every importer's plans, given that everybody is willing to give up part of the profits, by offering rebates or resorting to any other kind of promotional activity to attain the sales target," said the representative of Whirlpool Romania, a company to have entered air conditioners market this year
The sales season will extend to mid autumn, when those selling air conditioners are to eventually calculate this year's results and draw the line.
Air conditioners market is estimated to somewhere between 35 and 50 thousand units a year at the moment, although the statements of the top players contradict each other to a certain extent. According to the official statistics, the value of the imports of such equipment reached $50 million last year, with second-hand air conditioners having accounted for nearly one third of it.
"The Romanian market has not been a normal one. It has a lot of potential and although the sales were estimated to increase 35% this year compared with the same time in 2000, the sales were actually low, which led to a drop in prices, specified Anca Rosu, marketing manager with Daewoo Electronics. June was an extremely slow month for air conditioners sales, when it should have been one of the best of the year," the Daewoo official added.
The supply outstripping demand by far was another reason argued by importers.
"The market is supersaturated because the demand is the same as last year, while the supply has considerably increased," says Whirlpool's marketing manager.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
