Merloni Elettrodomestici, an Italian producer of home appliances, which holds the Ariston and Indesit brands, saw first half sales grow by 150% from the same time last year.
"There are two main reasons behind this positive evolution of revenues: the rise in demand for home appliances and the easier access to consumer credits," explained Eugen Paturan, head of the Romanian branch of Merloni Elettrodomestici.
If looking at the value of revenues, Indesit's were four times higher than Ariston's, with washing machines accounting for the largest share in the total revenues. In the first six months, sales of refrigerators and washing machines doubled as compared to the same period of 2002, Paturan stated. According to him, the company's management targets twice higher revenues for this year over against last year.
'We can say for sure that the turnover will reach 45 million euros. The new identity of the Ariston brand, together with a completely new range of products will be launched at the beginning of October. Amid economic recession facing European Union countries, we consider Romania possesses a high potential and Merloni is going to be especially interested in it in the near future," Paturan stated.
Merloni's representatives believe the Romanian home appliances market will grow until the end of next year and then register a slowdown by about 10-15%, due to a lower demand by 2005.
"The market of large home appliances, such as refrigerators, cookers, washing machines and dishwashers, last year registered sales that exceeded 800,000 units. According to our estimations, this market will reach 1.2 million units sold by the end of this year and progress by another 100,000 in 2004," Paturan specified.
As regards competition, Indesit and Ariston account for 15% of the Romanian market, as compared to 11.5% in late 2002. "These data are derived from our own estimations and from studies conducted by a company specialising in home appliances market research. Ariston's rivals are Siemens and Electrolux, while Indesit competes with Zanussi, Bosch, Siemens and Whirlpool," the general manager of Merloni Romania also said.
In Romania, Merloni products are distributed through several partners such as Metro, Carrefour, Selgros, Flanco, Altex, Domo and Amadeus, which secure 80% of the Italian producer's revenues in Romania.
Merloni Elettrodomestici SpA group was set up in 1975 and is now one of the largest producers of home appliances in Europe. Merloni's worldwide sales in the first six months of this year came to 1.4 billion euros, 26% higher as compared to the corresponding period of 2002. ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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