Romanians buy cheaper beverages and less often than before

The producer of Tuborg and Carlsberg beer, Granini soft drinks and Bilbor mineral water, looking back at this year's performance, says beer sales have gone down by 7% on the entire market, while the decline of non-carbonated drinks amounted to 15% compared with 2009.

"The beer market fell by 14% in 2009 and by 7% this year. On the non-carbonated segment, the decline amounted to 15-16% this year, less significant than last year," explains Shachar Shaine, who has been running URBB (the bottler of Tuborg and Carlsberg) since 2004.
On January 1st, Shaine will be handing over the reins of the local business to Israel's Hezy Ovadia, and says he does not know yet what he will be doing next year, but is in talks with the company, and could stay on with it.
"The summer months were good, then came a weaker period in September and October. November was, however, a good month, with 12-13% rises on 2009, probably because it was a warm month. The first ten days of December were better than last year, and we are hoping people will buy and drink during the holidays."
The economic crisis and the decline in the purchasing power prompted Romanians to change their consumption behaviour. "Consumers buy cheaper products and go out less. So the most affected products were premium ones. Mainstream products were less hurt," Shaine explains.