Lorand Szarvadi, founder and manager of home appliances retailerDomo, expects the electronics and home appliances market to reacharound 850 million euros this year, a level similar to the 2009one.
The forecast of the Domo manager nears predictions made byanalysts and by other players on the market, who expect either astagnation in 2010 or a fluctuation of up to 10%.
"I expect the market to stagnate in 2010, things cannot get anyworse, i.e. gross turnover of 850-900 million euros," said LorandSzarvadi.
In 2009 electronics and home appliances retail reported thebiggest decline of the decade, by over 40%, with the value of theoverall Romanian market down from 1.2-1.3 billion euros.
"I put last year's overall market at 750 million euros plus VAT.Hypermarkets saw a rise in terms of volume of sales, but the valuewas not high, because they went for cheaper products," Szarvadisaid.
Domo, the second-largest electronics and home appliancesretailer on the Romanian market, reported 170 million euros insales in 2009, down by over 16% against the previous year. Lastyear the market saw a shift in the sales structure as a result of adecline in sales of home appliances. Consumers now take longer toanalyse products, compare prices, and opt for medium and low-pricedproducts. Therefore, some of the consumers chose to acquire homeappliances from local hyper and supermarket chains, which launchedaggressive campaigns and promotional offers for certain types ofproducts.
Unlike the rest of the market, the segment of high-end homeappliances recorded the same sales as in 2008, and its typicalportfolio of clients has remained conservative, according tofigures reported by Franke and Miele brands.
According to data from market research company GfK, the numberof classic TV sets sold fell by 43% to 283,000 units betweenJanuary and October 2009, while LCD TV sales fell by 14%, to313,000 units.
Domo saw a sales decline by 35 million euros last year, as themarket contracted, and reported its first financial loss, of 1.5million euros. Szarvadi expects the company will be able to returnto the 200 million-euro mark reached two years ago.
"Domo should have at least 27% (of the market i.e.), which meansa 200 million-euro turnover plus VAT, a return to the 2008 level,but then the market exceeded 1.2 billion euros in gross figures."
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