The owner of Primola, the third-largest company on the chocolatetablet segment, valued at 120-150m euros, decided to resume massiveadvertising investments to gain market share this year and says thefalling price of media advertising is the opportunity of themoment.
Primola's share of the chocolate tablet market was put at 13-15%by ZF. Kraft Foods dominates the market with Milka and Poiana.
The company dramatically scaled back promotion investments in2009, losing ground in terms of visibility to rival Kraft, whichlast year reported rising market shares.
"We felt the need to rethink our strategy, and this year wechose to move to gain new consumers and not wait for consumptiongrowth as this is little likely to happen. Media advertising priceshave hit the bottom, which is surely an opportunity for us," statesJihad Jabra, the majority shareholder of Supreme Chocolat, whichposted more than 20m euros in turnover last year.
The company has recently started rebranding Primola chocolateand other products of its portfolio, a project valued at onemillion euros.
Jabra is the only entrepreneur closely fighting with themultinationals operating on the chocolate market. He also says theresumption of massive promotion investments in 2010 could bewell-timed given the arrival of a new player on the market, withthe sale of Cadbury Romania.
Chocolate retail sales dropped by 3% last year from 2008,according to MEMRB market research company. Supreme's owner saysthat, moreover, he felt a consumption shift from the medium pricesegment to the low one.
Jabra also specified the company did not have to cut productionin 2009, largely due to rising exports. "I believe we'll haveprolonged market stagnation this year. We are fortunate to operateexports. This year we want to boost the weight of exports frombelow 5% in 2009 to around 8% of the volume of production at theSupreme plant in Bucharest," says Jabra.
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