Erwin Vondenhoff, general manager of Heidi Chocolat, says thereare few products made in Romania that have gained internationalrecognition. Beyond the famous Dacia cars or Nokia phones producedin Jucu, though receipts are much smaller, the story of Heidichocolate shows the main factor guaranteeing the sale of amade-in-Romania product abroad is the accurate identification ofthe market segment one wants to tackle.
In the case of Heidi chocolate exports target the premium marketsegment. The reason? Bucharest luxury consumers are the same as NewYork or Shanghai ones.
In Romania, the premium segment is not growing rapidly and thusHeidi has a single option: exports.
"Ever since 2008, before the crisis fallout started being felt inRomania as well we've looked at the market and realised there wasno way we could grow but by turning global. In late 2008, westarted developing relationships with the major retailers of themarkets we wanted to be present on, so that from exports of 4% in 3countries we've now come to export 30% of production in 32countries and we plan to hit an export level of over 50% by 2012,"says Vondenhoff.
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