Only several days before the end of the year, the retailers of home appliances and electronic products can breathe a sigh of relief. Innovations in the implementation of new lending systems, as well as the soaring sales of IT products have allowed them to offset the slump registered after the first months of the year.
"It was expected that, following last year's boom, this year should bring in slower sales of home appliances and electronic products. Why? Because, beside loans for the purchase of white goods, Romanians are enjoying increasingly easier access to other types of loans, such as mortgages or loans for the acquisition of cars and thus priorities have changed," says Catalin Savulescu, general manager of Panasonic Romania, the representative of Japanese producer Matsushita on the Romanian market.
Consequently, traditional home appliances, such as washing machines, cooking stoves and refrigerators have been hit.
"The white goods market has this year declined by 10% year-on-year," believes Lorand Szarvadi, general manager of Domo Retail, the company owning the Domo stores network.
However, this does not mean that there have been no winners in this segment. Given the shrinking home appliances market, retailers have been heading for the electronic market and especially the IT&C products market.
"Though the white goods market has dropped 5-10%, the IT&C component has surged by over 50%, leading to an overall market increase of 10-15%," maintains Dan Ostahie, chairman of Altex group of firms.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro
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