The number two player on the wine market, Jidvei Romania, has estimated its sales for this year will reach 18 million euros, being driven by the same portfolio it had in 2004, when it turned in sales of 15 million euros.
"Sales last year went up 12% in terms of value, while witnessing a 3.5% retreat in terms of volume. However, we are happy with this drop because our premium brands grew a great deal at the expense of the popular segment," says Claudiu Necsulescu, the chairman and majority shareholder of Jidvei Romania.
He says he will not diversify the product portfolio in 2005. Jidvei Romania owns 1,450 ha of vineyards in the Tarnave region of Romania and does not foresee buying any more vineyards or competitors in the industry. "This year will see something of a slowdown in the growth of red wine owing to the fact that Romanians favour white wine over red. On the other hand, I believe Romania is clearly starting to follow the worldwide trend for fresh wines, which are no more than three years old. The market is still suffering the harmful effects caused by some winemakers before '89 that used to disguise flaws in their wines by adding sugar," Necsulescu added.
The company makes fine wines mainly under its Jidvei brand, and also produces brandy and sparkling wine.
"We did better on the brandy market last year after we changed the packaging. Admittedly, we aimed a little too high in terms of pricing (9 or 10 euros) on the sparkling wines market, as consumers have not yet developed a taste for these products. The low purchasing power of Romanians means they go for cheaper products," Necsulescu said. He went on to say that Jidvei would be looking to increase market share for sparkling wines, preferring to remain with sales of 160,000-180,000 bottles per year.
Jidvei recently completed a half million-euro investment in planting 65 hectares of vine, and has also scheduled a replanting programme of 100 hectares every year for the next few years.
"Romania is facing a real danger because it only has 70-80% of the total hectares of vineyard area negotiated with the EU (240,000 hectares), meaning when accession comes EU officials could come and say we don't have the correct amount of hectares and therefore the difference should be re-allocated to another country. The authorities are not giving the necessary support to eliminate this danger," Necsulescu said.
Jidvei Romania is preparing a 3.5 million-euro SAPARD-funded programme to upgrade its winemaking technologies.
The still wine market was worth some 310 million euros last year, according to the data from the wine industry trade body. stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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