“Carrefour beer” or small producers' attempt to stay on the market

Retailers' decision to expand their portfolio of private labels has amounted to a breath of fresh air for small and medium-sized beer producers affected by the sales decline.
Small beer producers, which together hold less than 5% of the local market, compared with 20% five or six years ago, have signed private label production contracts with retailers such as Carrefour, Metro, and Mega Image.
After losing ground to beer multinationals, which now account for over 90% of the market, small producers are seeking new strategies to stay in business on a market put at one billion euros per year.
"We started to produce retailers' private labels in 2009 after end consumers turned towards this type of stores and products. Since the beginning of this year, we have started collaboration with another two retailers," said Luminita Martin, general manager of Albrau Group, producer of Albrau and Zimbru brands, which posted around eight million euros in turnover in 2008.
Beer producers say there are two ways of producing beer for retailers, i.e. for their private labels (for instance Carrefour has the Carrefour and No. 1 labels) and for dedicated labels, which are produced for a single retailer, but under a different name from that of its private label.
Martens Galati, which posted a four million-euro turnover in 2009, produced both private labels and dedicated labels for retailers such as Winny (Cora), Steiner (miniMax Discount), Top Budget (Interex), Soveja, Cozia, Postavaru, and Kanzel.