The producer of the Garrone vermouth, Romanian Drinks Service, will soon launch alcoholic beverages on the aperitif and digestif segment following completion of a 2.5 million-euro investment in a new logistics and production centre close to Bucharest.
"We want to make a name for these beverages, closely connected to Italian cuisine, which is rising on the Romanian market. Until now, the market has been 90% fed by imports. We want to be positioned at half the price of imported drinks," said Alexandru Cazacu, the general manager of Romanian Drinks Service, a company held by Italy''s Rodia Spa, the owner of the Garrone brand.
The company also intends to launch a 200,000-euro advertising campaign this autumn (rate card price) to promote its new beverages after seeing them pass the "shelf test". "The Romanian market does not have a tradition of consumption for these types of drinks. We will focus on the on-trade segment (stores)," he added.
Romanian Drinks Service expects to make a 6 million-euro turnover this year, a surprisingly lower amount than last year''s 6.5 million euros, despite the smaller product portfolio in 2004.
"Our sales will be similar to those for last year for the time being, and sales in the first three months were constant.
There were no major changes on the market, although excise duties on alcoholic beverages did go up.
This step should have affected us, but to our surprise we felt no recoil. We will rely on carving out new market niches this year instead of boosting market share," Cazacu explained.
Estimates for the first year of aperitifs and digestifs indicate sales of two million euros (400,000 bottles).
Romanian Drinks Service''s new administrative centre includes a logistics base, new production facilities and offices.
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