Slovenian home appliances manufacturer Gorenje estimates that sales will increase by 15%, to 16.5m euros, in Romania this year.
"It is very hard to make forecasts for the home appliances market in Romania in 2006, because the economic situation has been uncertain lately. The GDP growth reached less than 2% in the last quarter, which is alarming, and the exchange rate is far from following a predictable trend. Anyway, we set out to attain 15% growth in Romania both in terms of home appliance sales volume and in terms of turnover, because Gorenje stays on the same position," Gorenje Romania representatives say. The company, established in 2003, does not engage in commercial operations, and only acts as a commercial representative office.
"We have 8 importers in Romania at the moment and when we''re talking turnover, we mean import prices, not sales prices. Gorenje d.d. Slovenia''s turnover in Romania in CIP prices (i.e. excluding taxes) amounted to 14.5m euros in 2005. We estimate a volume of 16.5m euros in 2006," the officials of the Slovenian manufacturer added. Gorenje, one of the main regional players, is looking at potential targets for acquisitions in Eastern and Western Europe, the company chairman Franjo Bobinac said.
"We are very interested in the Ukrainian market, where we have managed to double our sales last year. We also anticipate double-digit growth in Russia, while we are also counting on Romania," Bobinac was quoted as saying by Slovenian press agency STA. Gorenje last year sold 64,000 home appliance products on the Romanian market, up from the 50,000 units sold in 2004.
"Some of our product ranges went up by as much as ten times because we tried to introduce products to meet the tastes of consumers in Romania, and overall, we registered over 20% growth compared with 2004," Gorenje Romania officials say.
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