Tea pushes Fares business over 5.6m euros

Orastie-based Fares, a local producer of medicinal herbal tea varieties, estimates an approximately 5.6 million-euro turnover for this year, a 25% increase against 2006. "The positive trend of financial indicators estimated for this year will be influenced by the increasingly big shift of consumers to natural products, which compensate through their characteristics the negative effects caused by stress and pollution," Adelina Hanciu, the company's brand manager, told ZF Transilvania. The company invested over 0.5 million euros last year with a view to implementing a food safety system provided for by the European norms, and according to company management, the investment would continue this year as well. "We think the Romanian tea market is quite well positioned compared other European Union members, and this has to do with the diversity of our product range and with competitive prices," added Hanciu. Far es developed a distribution network, which includes 22 warehouses located in the big cities of the country, with the goods being sold in stores specialising in natural products, in drugstores and in supermarkets.