Since it entered the market, in 2005, Pepsi has been trying to catch up with Coca-Cola, betting on massive production and marketing investments. On the other hand, Coca-Cola has been slashing costs and closing half of its factories in two years, but it can still boast huge marketing budgets and a share of above 50% on the biggest segment of the market.
The two companies' strategies are completely opposite, but this can be explained by the very large gap between the two rivals' market shares. Last year, Coca-Cola Hellenic reached a 54.4% market share in terms of volume on the segment of carbonated soft drinks, from 53.3% in 2007. Carbonated soft drinks make the biggest category in the soft drinks sector and bring almost 70% of Coca-Cola HBC Romania's total volume sales. The Greek company thus stands at a comfortable distance from its main competitor, Pepsi, whose market share is put at less than 30%.
Coca-Cola, an already mature business, is now betting on boosting efficiency amid slowing consumption, while Pepsi is coming up with 100m dollars to gain market share in Romania.
"Coca-Cola and Pepsi have always had different approaches to the Romanian market. Coca-Cola bet on strong expansion ten years ago and has meanwhile reached a very large market share. Lagging behind, Pepsi is now striving to regain market share. In the past year or two, the company has been aggressively tapping into distribution channels(...)," explains Iulian Padurariu, managing director of Trout & Partners strategic consultancy.
Less than a year since it entirely took over QAB (former local bottler of PepsiCo products) entirely, Pepsi Americas in 2007 announced plans to invest in its first greenfield in Romania. It has since revised these plans several times, so that estimates now point to 150m dollars, much more than initially announced. The facility will be opened this week and may allow the company to tackle new market segments and set up an export base in Romania.
On the other hand, Coca-Cola HBC Romania is now in the middle of a restructuring process. This year alone, 300 of the around 2,300 jobs at the company have been eliminated. The producer has recently announced another 100 layoffs for 2009.
While production strategies differ, in promotion the two rivals focus on brand development, betting almost on the same market segments.
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