As they have grown quite accustomed with the supermarkets, discounter shops, cash&carry units and hypermarkets, Romanians are rushing to do the Easter shopping at the big retailers these days.
Moreover, this Easter has brought a wider range of products that already existed last year, but also new types of products, according to many retailers.
In figures, Easter this year will translate into lamb meat sales worth 90 million dollars, cake worth 18 million dollars and 10 million dollars' worth of wine. In other words, sales are up 10-50 percent for most food categories, while, for others, sales are expected to grow several times.
"We have several types of egg paint and many sorts of chocolate products and, furthermore, new combinations of toys and sweets have entered the Romanian market for the first time this year," say officials of one of Bucharest's supermarket chains.
However, Easter does not bring only soaring consumption of foodstuffs. The retailers of electronic and household appliances have launched various promotional campaigns tailored especially for this time of year, which has enabled them to get over last month's slump in sales.
The services companies, especially the cleaning companies, are also making nice profits because of Easter.
Also, since increasingly more Romanians are driving to their summer residences, where they intend to spend the mini Easter holiday, gasoline sales are up 15-20 percent and the national company CFR Calatori (National Railway Company) estimates that ticket sales will see a 10 billion ROL growth during this period of time.
The bigger sales projected by retailers are also due to the bigger number of operating stores.
"This time last year, we had 15 stores. I am positive that the four units we opened in the second half last year will help improve the turnover for 2004. In fact, this is precisely the reason why we have continued to expand at such a rapid pace," say Delia Nica, public relations manager with Metro Cash & Carry Romania. The company expects sales worth 800 million euros this year.
Carrefour, Romania's largest retailer in terms of sales, now operates three hypermarkets instead of one and forecasts 2004 sales worth 250 million euros.
According to the general manager of Carrefour Romania, Francois Oliver, Romanians even buy more than the west Europeans during the Easter time, except for the chocolate in special moulds, such as Easter bunnies and eggs.
This year's main performers will be eggs and lamb meat, the two products that are tightly linked to Easter. "Romanians buy some 2 million lambs every Easter, when consumption peaks," says Mihai Dumitriu, president of the Romanian Patronage of Ovine Breeders and Exporters.
Other products that are very popular on Easter are cake, red wine and chocolate.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro ; stelian.negrea@zf.ro
georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
