Manufacturers of consumer goods and electrical home appliances and retailers state this yearend's sales, the best indicator for the annual budget, are around 20% higher than last year. The increase is in line with the increase in the minimum wage from last year, of around 25%.
Beer and wine sales soar by over 20%. Producers of electrical home appliances in half a month match sales of last December. On the car market, 10% of annual sales are generated in December. The trend is primarily based on the purchasing power increase.
For instance, electronics and electrical home appliances retailer Flamingo had reached the level of December 2006 sales as soon as Wednesday, with the company reporting average daily sales of over 1m euros, and the trend is expected to continue.
Couriers also benefited from the strong consumption appetite, delivering 25-30% more parcels in December against the same period of last year. "The increase was higher than we expected, of over 30% from last year's winter holidays' period. There are more and more money on the market and this shows (...)," said Felix Patrascanu, managing director of Fan Courier, the biggest player on the segment of domestic delivery services.
TNT, boasting the biggest turnover from international shipment services, benefited from a similar growth. "(...) We can state the number of shipments processed in December 2007 compared with the same month of last year has already increased by around 25%," said Bogdan Zafiu, a sales&marketing manager with TNT Romania.
"This December, delivered volumes were 3 times higher than last year," said Bogdan Carcu, Curiero chairman. The rising consumption is also felt in supermarket operators' turnovers.
Caius Crisan, Profi general manager, expects sales in the network's old stores to go up by 20% this month from December 2006, in line with recent years' trend. Ion Soloman, owner of Ethos supermarket chain of Bucharest, forecasts a somewhat higher increase, of 25%, for this period.
For wine producers, December brought sales increases of 17%, to 100%. The market leader, Murfatlar, estimates December will bring a 20% increase compared with the same period of last year. On the soft drinks market, consumption increased by 5-10%, estimates Adrian Teslovan, marketing manager of Romaqua Group.
In the case of beer consumption, things are even better. "(...) We expect to end December with 20% higher sales compared with the same period of last year," stated Shaine Shachar, URBR chairman. For December, Romania's car producers and importers forecast sales at the level of the annual average, 22-24% higher from the same period of last year.
December sales
Manufacturers of consumer goods and electrical home appliances and retailers state this December's sales, the best indicator for the annual budget, are around 20% bigger than in the same month of last year
The increase is in line with the increase in the minimum wage from last year, of around 25%
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