Elite, the Romanian coffee market leader at the moment has launched a new product, Elite Cappuccino, taking advantage of a significant market segment, which is only to increase in the future and has a lot of potential: the cappuccino consumers.
According to the data provided by the GFK Market Research Institute, the cappuccino market has followed an upward trend over the past two years, accounting for 2% of the total coffee market.
The new product will be available in three flavours at first: chocolate, vanilla and classic. The investment in the new product reaches $500,000, with the marketing investment scheduled to amount to $1 million by the end of the year.
"I think Elite has found a market niche: cappuccino consumers in Romania account for about 2% of the total coffee market.
Consumption of coffee substitutes such as cappuccino and hot chocolate has taken an upward trend especially in Western Europe, because young people regard the real coffee as a bitter product and they shift to sweeter products, that is the above-mentioned ones," says Andrei Filip, consultant with Roland Berger-Strategy Consultants.
"Elite wants to diversify its product portfolio by this new release and position on a segment to largely develop in the future.
This move is a direct challenge to the La Festa product (imported from Poland), the current market leader. At the same time, Elite is one step ahead of its main competitor Kraft (maker of Jacobs and Nova Brasilia)," Filip added.
The total coffee specialties (cappuccino, hot chocolate) market in 2000 amounted to $2.9 million, while the instant coffee market was estimated at $8.9 million, according to the data provided by Roland Berger.
"Our product is the result of the direct co-operation with the consumers. We tried to make a product to meet their demands as much as possible. We've been working on this product for eighteen months now. The recipe was created in our labs abroad, but we're producing it here," said Eli Rachmut, Elite Romania general manager.
Elite Cappuccino is the only such product made locally.
"Our product targets two types of consumers mainly: on the one hand, those who do not drink coffee, and on the other those who want a decaf coffee flavoured desert, perfect for drinking at night," says Ovidiu Bradu, Brand Manager Instant Coffee. Other products on the cappuccino market in Romania are Nestle, La Festa, Tchibo and Regal (European Food).
The coffee market has undergone major changes over the past two or three years: the coffee beans and instant coffee market dropped to 50% of the previous value, losing ground to the ground coffee market.
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