Matanya Schwartz, CEO of Strauss Romania, a company that is fighting with Kraft Foods for the leading position on the coffee market, is keeping its eyes on the market for possible acquisitions and says the group has 300m dollars available for company takeovers.
"One of the opportunities we are currently seeing is the acquisition of some companies that are now cheaper than they were before the crisis. The Romanian market is on our list, too, and we're analysing all options domestically. Should Kraft sell the coffee unit of Romania, we'll buy it," says Schwartz smilingly, a man who runs a 70m-euro business in Romania.
The coffee market, put at 250m euros, is dominated by multinationals Strauss, Kraft and Nestlé, while Cafea Fortuna is the only Romanian producer, with 20m-euro annual sales. The company is owned by Constantin Moroianu, and its CEO, Dan Lazarescu, is not considering selling the business, despite the several investors inquiring about it.
"Our group's core business is coffee processing, which makes us little vulnerable to economic turmoil. We have around 300m dollars available for company acquisitions on the markets we operate in," specifies Schwartz.
Strauss group is the leader of the Israeli coffee market, and now operates in 19 countries. Taking over a rival would allow the company to speed up its market share expansion in Romania, on a market with stagnating consumption. Last year, the company started rebranding Elita coffee, which became Doncafé, with Strauss targeting repositioning on the premium segment of the market. Also, the company entered the coffee mix segment, the most dynamic of the market, and opened the first Doncafé Brasserie & Espresso Bar location together with a coffee shop and restaurant operator.
The company plans to boost its market share from around 30% to 50% in the next years, but on short term it could see its share shrink after losing some customers.
This year, the company's investments will be aimed at promotion campaigns, with the marketing budget being similar to last year's, 6m euros.
Domestically, the market offers few turnover growth opportunities to coffee producers and processors. Romania's coffee consumption is half the European average.
Schwartz estimates turnover worth 250-260m RON in 2009 for Strauss Romania, similar to the 2008 level.
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