One of Austria''s largest natural juice producers, Pfanner, is looking to obtain a factory for juice production in Romania. It has not yet been decided whether they will build or buy a factory and no timeframe has been established. A decision will be made based on the development of consumption on the market.
Cyrom Romania, the local importer and exclusive distributor of Pfanner juices, saw its sales surge 60% in the first six months of the year.
"We hope that this growth trend will continue and that our turnover will reach 5 million euros in 2005," said Catalin Tapi, Cyrom''s commercial manager. Last year, the company turned over three million euros, twice as much as in the previous year.
Tapi believes growth will be the decisive factor in deciding whether to invest in Romania. "There are plans for investing in a Romanian juice plant, but the timing is up to the brand owners. The shareholders are considering both options: buying an existing plant or a greenfield investment," he said.
However, he made it clear that a factory catering purely to the domestic market would not be profitable, since the Austrian firm''s lowest production capacity is one million litres per day.
"There will surely be a production facility for the Balkans region, including both fruit processing and bottling operations," he said. Pfanner, together with its market rival, Rauch, is the leader of the natural juice market in Central and Eastern Europe.
The expected growth in sales in Romania is based on increased consumption on the entire juice market, for the most part following the shift from carbonated to non-carbonated drinks.
"Natural juices make up the most dynamic segment, where we estimate our market share at 14-17%. We intend to get a foothold on this market and also to grow on the nectars segment," said Tapi. Pfanner also makes juices for the nectar (25-60% pulp) and still drinks categories.
"We will launch a new range of natural juices in August - a 100% apple juice, our SudTirol juice, a 100% lemon juice, and we are very likely to launch tomato juice in a 0.2litre pack," he added.
Starting in the second half of the year, though mainly from 2006, the importer for the Austrian brand is hoping to increase its presence on the HoReCa (hotel-restaurants-catering) segment, based on specialised distribution to the four and five-star restaurants, bars and hotels.
"There is significant growth on the HoReCa segment, but this is not yet showing at an overall market level," said Tapi. dana.ciriperu@zf.ro
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