Austrian group Lasselsberger, which has been left with onesingle ceramic tiles plant in Cluj, after it closed down theCesarom Bucuresti and the Mondial Lugoj plant, says it willconsider building a new plant on the Romanian market whenconsumption will be 60% higher than the 2009 level, estimated at200 million euros.
The Austrians have budgeted a similar turnover this year to the2008 one in RON, of around 162.7 million RON (44 million euros),posted by Sanex Cluj-Napoca and by Lasselsberger, after triplingtheir distribution network and entering all DIY stores inRomania.
"The market will continue to slide in 2010 because there are noinvestors, no new real estate projects, massive redundancies areannounced, with analysts expecting further economic decline. Weintend to preserve our sales value in 2010 by gaining marketshare," said Christian Morath, general manager of LasselsbergerRomania.
Ceramic tiles consumption will be down by over 30% this year, to 25million square metres, equivalent to around 200 million euros,which compares with a 15-20% decline that Lasselsberberrepresentatives predicted halfway through the year. The marketdecline deepened in July-September, which was usually the ceramictiles peak season.
"Statistical data reveal that imports fell strongly in the peakmonths, signalling that distributors accumulated stocks, and thatdemand was low. Whilst our half-year sales exceeded those recordedin the similar period of last year, nine months into the year wematched the 2008 level," says Eduard Macarescu, Lasselsberger'scommercial manager.
Morath and Macarescu took the reins of Lasselsberger Romania at theend of last year, after previously working with German group REWE,owner of Billa supermarkets.
The new management changed the company's sales strategy and tripledthe number of distributors from 25 last year to 83. Additionally,Lasselsberger products are present in all DIY chains on theRomanian market, after zero presence in such stores lastyear.
"We put the business in order this year, and used the expertiseaccumulated on the FMCG market, where the market is much moreorderly. The construction materials distribution sector is chaoticin Romania compared with the one in Germany, where there are onlyDIY networks and specialised hypermarkets with integrated services.On the Romanian market, everyone imports the way they wish and whenthey wish," Morath says.
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