Avon Cosmetics Romania turnover up 67%

Cosmetics dealer Avon Cosmetics Romania last year logged $50.4 million turnover, 67% more than in 2001 in real terms, Avon's general manager for Central and Eastern Europe, Srdjan Mijuskovic told Ziarul Financiar.
It had posted $30.1 million turnover in 2001.
Mijuskovic said his company was unaffected by last year's market decline most of the companies in the industry operating on the Romanian market were complaining about. Certain estimates show some of the cosmetics industry segments, that is skin care products, antiperspirant products and hair care products, went down 10%. "I do not agree with those that say the market went down last year. We feel the same clients are starting to buy more and more," Mijuskovic says.
Surveys conducted by the Euromonitor and mentioned by Mijuskovic show the cosmetics market to have amounted to $190 million in 2002. The Avon manager believes it might have been worth even more.
"I think there's a huge chunk of the market not found in this survey," he added.
Mijuskovic specified the company growth last year was not necessarily due to eating some of the competitors' market shares, but to attracting part of the grey market consumers to Avon.
"For certain reasons, a segment of the grey market has started buying Avon products. What worries me most is a rather recent phenomenon, that is the release of fakes sold as genuine Avon products. We're selling more, but on the other hand have to deal with this issue. We will organise and demand protection, yet I do not agree to this being a small market, but on the contrary. I think the purchasing power is increasing, and, even though salaries may not be officially going up, the people's incomes are, and we can definitely feel it," Mijuskovic said.
Avon's head also said the company he ran had not been influenced by the ROL/EUR exchange rate trend last year, either, but rather by the fluctuation of the ROL/USD exchange rate.