The market of electronic and electrical home appliances last year reached 850m euros, after several years of growth spurred by the boom of consumer lending.
As the period of sustained growth is coming to an end, especially for the electrical home appliances, the value of the market is likely to reach at most 1.25bn euros in 2010, according to market players. However, profitability will continue to fall.
"There have been several years of sustained growth. Given the annual volume of more than 1.5 million units on the electronic home appliances market, it means that approximately 8 million units have been sold over the last five years, a value comparable with the total number of households in Romania," believes Eugen Paturan, Indesit country manager.
Thus, over 95% of households have refrigerators and cookers and approximately 60% - washing machines.
"The market of electrical home appliances has matured. All the major international players are present in Romania, and prices are in line with the European market," adds Monica Iavorschi, Arctic marketing manager.
In this context, the electrical home appliances market is likely to even register a decline this year, as it happened last year, when approximately 1.5 million units were sold, down 5% from the previous year, in line with data provided by companies.
"The market is likely to shrink this year, too. Starting next year, following EU integration, the market will stabilise, and over the following years will resume its growth. However, there will be single-digit growth rates, as it happens on mature markets," adds Paturan.
Not all segments of the market of home appliances will fall this year though, retailers say.
While growth outlooks for home appliances are rather moderate, players in the field of electronics have more reasons to be optimistic. Catalin Savulescu, general manager of Panasonic Romania, estimates sales of electronics will go up by approximately 20-30% by 2010.
The companies operating in Romania say the total volume of the market of electronics and electrical home appliances will revolve around 1.25-1.3bn euros by 2010.
Pentru alte știri, analize, articole și informații din business în timp real urmărește Ziarul Financiar pe WhatsApp Channels
