Tone Prislan, the general manager of Slovenian manufacturer of electrical home appliances Gorenje in Romania, says his company''s objective is to increase its market share amid tightening competition.
"Major retails are looking at producers'' market share at the moment they choose to sell their products. A producer with a small market share will have little space to display its products in stores and unless you have a solid turnover, no retailer will want you in its stores," says Tone Prislan.
In the first quarter of this year, Gorenje sold more than 16,000 electrical home appliances in Romania, up 30% compared with the corresponding period of last year, amid a downward trend seen by the domestic electrical home appliances market, as indicated by market estimates.
Several months ago, the official anticipated sales would go up by 15% this year, to 16.5 million euros (CIP prices, no taxes included). "Monthly sales of Gorenje products in Romania go beyond 1.2 million euros CIP (Cost Insurance Paid i.e.)," specified Prislan. Gorenje products are sold in Romania through 8 importers.
"Our focus is the presence of Gorenje products in all the major stores countrywide and we are choosing our importers so that we could cover all these stores. Regional coverage is also important," states Prislan.
Gorenje''s strategy involves the renewal of the product portfolio on a monthly basis, depending on market demand. "We are permanently watching any change in the sales of electrical home appliances by retailers, because the Romanian electrical home appliances market is highly dynamic.
At the same time, we try to identify market niches, so that we may bring new product categories that should meet consumers'' increasingly complex needs," Prislan also states.
At present, there are 150 models of Gorenje electrical home appliances on the domestic market, of the 2,000 products at the level of the group.
Ninety percent of Gorenje''s electrical home appliances are manufactured in Slovenia, 10% in the Czech Republic and the group also owns a kitchen furniture plant in Austria.
Prislan also says that a criterion Romanian consumers'' are increasingly taking into consideration when buying electrical home appliances is the power saving feature. Price is yet another very important.
Slovenian group Gorenje currently has over 10,000 employees and annually invests 50 million euros in production lines.
The group''s production last year amounted to 3 million units, and the group plans to boost production to 4.5 million units in the future.
The Romanian electrical home appliances market last year stood at 1.3 million sold products, according to Gorenje estimates. mihaela.popescu@zf.ro
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