Dorna loses ground to cheaper brands and private labels

Coca-Cola HBC, the biggest player on the domestic non-alcoholic drinks market, has a single mineral water brand left among the five best-selling brands on this segment in terms of volumes, namely Izvorul Alb, with Dorna brand being outside this ranking, shows a survey conducted by Nielsen market research company.

Store networks' private labels, cheaper brands, as well as consumers' shifting to still from sparkling mineral water have left Dorna outside the ranking of the best-selling waters in terms of volumes (in December 2009-November 2010 period), the Nielsen survey reveals.

Price counting in consumers' choices also shows from Dorna's being among the top five brands, but only depending on sales value, not sold volumes.

Non-carbonated waters have been gaining ground lately, also proven by the presence of Coca-Cola's non-carbonated water brand Izvorul Alb among the five best-selling brands in terms of volumes. Moreover, Borsec, the market leader that chose to go with the same brand on the both the sparkling and still mineral water markets, made a winning move that keeps the brand part of Romaqua portfolio on the top position on a market put at 300m euros annually.

"There are a lot of surveys released on the market and most of them include different data. This is why we do not comment on these surveys. (...)," was Coca-Cola's answer.