Unilever South Central Europe (USCE), the second leading player on the Romanian detergents market with an estimated value of 100 million euros a year, has announced that for 2005 it will be focussing on the medium market segment through its Dero brand.
"We want to approach the market gradually, not all segments at one time. Unilever has three detergent brands in its portfolio - Dero, Omo and Bona - but until now we have focused on the Dero brand, which is aimed at medium-income consumers," said Alexandra Gatej, USCE's marketing manager.
More than 50% of the detergents market in Romania is controlled by Procter & Gamble, with its three detergent brands - Ariel, Tide and Bonux. Other competitors include Henkel (Persil, Perwoll), and Interstar (Rivex, Show).
Dero, which is owned by Unilever, increased its market share in terms of volume by 3% last year to reach 25%, according to figures provided by company quoting AC Nielsen research. "We became market leaders in terms of volume last year and have set out to achieve higher growth than the market average for Dero in order to maintain our position," Gatej said.
Unilever produces its three detergent brands at its facility in Ploiesti, which it acquired in 1995. The company exports detergents made at the Ploiesti factory to both Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe. Detergent consumption in Romania was aided by the growth seen in automatic washing machines sales in recent years, which became more accessible due to the advent of consumer finance.
"Detergents are the most mature category on the entire consumer goods market in the sense that penetration of this product is very high at more than 70%. Last year detergent consumption amounted to some 100 million euros," Gatej said. She also expects the market to grow by around 5%. The total turnover of the company in Romania came to 95 million euros last year. It is expected to exceed 100 million euros in 2005.
"The consumer goods market will increase this year, but the growth will not be spectacular because consumers have other priorities, such as buying cars and homes," explained Gatej. She believes the most dynamic segments of the FMCG market will be home care products, hair care products and facial creams
Unilever is present on 18 segments of the consumer goods market and on average launches one new product every week. It introduced 25 new personal care products and 33 new food products in Romania last year. |
