The commercial manager of Cramele Recas company, one of the most important wine exporters in Romania, says he has set up a company to handle the marketing and sale of products on the domestic market.
"We''ve taken this decision in order to make it easier to run the company," said Philip Cox.
Cramele Recas company wants to become more visible to Romanian consumers, after 60% of its annual sales have so far been generated by foreign markets.
"Whereas last year we were mainly focused on making the necessary investments to improve part of production, at present we are focusing on customers," says Philip Cox.
The commercial manager also says that the company''s development on the hotel-restaurant-catering segment is a priority this year.
"The company we''ve set up has 40 employees handling the relations with restaurants and hotels, as well as with key-accounts networks," says Philip Cox.
The strategy of the Banat-based producer targets to boost sales on the domestic market.
In 2005, Cramele Recas exported 55% of its production, and 45% was sold on the domestic market. This year, 55% of production will be destined to the domestic market and 45% will go to foreign markets.
"In terms of value, though, we expect the percentages to be equal due to the significant increase of the average price for exports," says Cox.
He considers wine exports will witness a "dramatic" decline this year.
"2006 threatens to be the first year in the history of Romania when wine imports will surpass exports," he says.
According to Philip Cox, this happens in the context of the weak harvest of 2005, which pushed wine wholesale prices up. "Amid the inefficient production, old technology, incomplete legislation and the very slow progress toward a strategy of joint promotion of the wine-growing sector, Romania is lagging behind its foreign rivals and this is making it very difficult for the Romanian wine to become competitive globally," adds Cox.
As early as last year, wine exports started to decrease, after wine had been among the top agrifood products delivered onto foreign markets for years on end.
In 2005, the company posted 56% higher sales, to 6.4 million euros and for this year expects turnover to rise by approximately 20%, to 7.7 million euros.
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