Whirlpool Romania expects to make more than 36m euros in turnover this year, up 5% in real terms from the 34.5 million euros (900bn ROL) posted in 2001. Net profit will go beyond $900,000 this year, after having reached 880,000 euros (23bn ROL) last year.
"We sold more than 176,000 home appliances on the Romanian market last year, with the figure set to increase by 3% in 2002. This means we have practically increased our share from 20% to 21% of the Romanian imported home appliances market," Mircea Dobre, Whirlpool Romania general manager said.
Whirlpool accounts for 10% of the Romanian refrigerating equipment, given its co-operation with Romanian producer Arctic over the past few years. "This year, nearly 20,000 pieces of refrigerating equipment in various models and in line with the Whirlpool standards have been produced in Gaesti, four of these models having been sold in Eastern Europe and one on the Romanian market. The co-operation will continue after Arctic's takeover by Turkish group Arcelik, but I cannot tell you exactly how it is going to develop in the medium and long run," Dobre added.
Whirlpool was one of the groups that carried out talks to take over Arctic at some point, but the Americans finally settled for buying the Polish Polar producer. "This takeover will impact on the Romanian market, as well, where the Polar products are currently represented by the Grim CD Group. A final decision about this brand will be made at the corporate headquarters soon," Whirlpool Romania general manager feels.
The company, however, is the leader of the washing machine market, where the Whirlpool brand accounts for 40% of the total sales in Romania, estimated to reach 250,000 units this year. "The front-loader segment registered the most powerful dynamic over the last few years, and has come to account for 75% of the market," Dobre added.
Last year, Whirlpool was the top advertising spender among all the home appliance companies on the Romanian market.
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