2019 in Review: Most Important Events in Romanian Food and Beverage Industry
The year 2019 came with a slowdown in consumer spending in Romania but the food and beverage industry remained buoyant, with new investments announced and new product launches.
The year also saw a lot of management changes, with many Romanians promoted abroad. For instance, FrieslandCampina’s Cornel Caramizaru is now running the operations of the group in Spain and Portugal.
There were also a number of deals, though not as large as those in 2018. Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, one of the most active players on the local FMCG market, bought 75% in Good People, the company behind the FruFru brand and Alexandrion Group, the largest spirits manufacturer, bought a distributor in Cyprus.
Manufacturers like Romaqua Group, which owns the Borsec, Aquatique and Albacher brands, and Maspex Romania, the producer of the Tymbark juice, announced significant investments this year.
Growth for manufacturers
Despite the overall consumer spending slowdown compared with 2018, the food and beverage producers continued to see growth. Agricola Bacau, for one, posted growth of 8% in the first nine months compared with the year-ago period and seeks to end the year with the same growth rate. Coca-Cola HBC Romania, Danone, Prodlacta and Cris-Tim posted growth, too, according to the latest data available. Spending on food, beverages and tobacco rose by some 5%, according to National Statistics Institute data.
Changes of managers
The year 2019 came with several manager changes, so Ursus Breweries, FrieslandCampina Romania, Coca-Cola Romania, Puratos Romania, Kandia Dulce and Mondelez Romania are now under new leadership. Ursus Breweries put Dragos Constantinescu in charge, an executive who had previously worked for British American Tobacco. FrieslandCampina and Coca-Cola Romania got foreign executives on the top spot, after Cornel Caramizaru and Nicoleta Eftimiu were promoted to oversee other markets in Europe.
Emphasis on ready-made food
More and more manufacturers are launching ready meal products to cater to the rising number of Romanians who no longer cook at home. Prefera Foods, one of the largest actors on the canned food market, invested EUR4 million in the launch of `de Azi’ brand, which it uses for vegetable soups, smoothies and freshly squeezed juice. Other actors on this market are Angst, Cris-Tim, Agricola Bacau and Macromex (Edenia).
Poland’s Maspex group makes new investments
Maspex Romania, the company that owns such brands as Tymbark, Tedi, La Festa and Salatini, got two tranches of state aid worth 45.5 million lei (almost EUR10 million) this year. The company will invest in its two new projects that entail buying new beverage bottling lines RON91.2 milion. The company makes Tymbark, Tedi, Ciao and Figo soft drinks, instant products La Festa, sweet and salty snacks (Salatini, Rollini d’Oro) and pasta (Arnos) in Valenii de Munte and bottles the Bucovina mineral water in the Vatra Dornei plant.
After buying Betty Ice, Unilever buys into FruFru
Anglo-Dutch giant Unilever, one of the largest actors on the local FMCG market, took over 75% in Good People, the company behind the FruFru brand in a deal where entrepreneur Mihai Simic chose to keep 25%. FruFru specializes in healthy food and juice. The company posted RON34 milion revenue in 2018, up 27% on the previous year, while profit tripled to RON842,626, according to Finance Ministry data.
Romaqua Group, RON56 million investments in Aquatique
Romaqua Group, the largest bottler of natural mineral water in Romania with such brands as Borsec, Aquatique and Stanceni, will receive more than RON28 milion state aid to expand the Aquatique mineral water bottling capacity. The project entails building a new facility and buying equipment, according to Finance Ministry data and will require RON56 million investments.
Several deals on food and beverage market
Although 2019 did not come with as large deals as in the previous years, several deals were signed on the food and beverage market this year. Italy’s Orasesta S.p.A signed the deal to buy Nova Prompt, held by Valentin Cristian Miscoci, in August. Nova Prompt operates 4,000 coffee vending machines under the Coffee Selection brand installed at customers. Dr. Oetker, the largest actor on the food additives market, bought Rimcio, which owns pastry manufacturer Panovia Prod SA. Transilvania Nuts, the nut kernel processer held by Levente Bara and Alexandru Chirici resumed production and distribution of Nutribon and Yoli brands (dried fruit and nut bars, packaged dried fruit).
Radu Timis turns reins of Cris-Tim over to next generation
Radu Timis Jr., the eldest son of the founders of the Cris-Tim group Cristina and Radu Timis, took the position of CEO of the business that generates more than EUR150 milion revenue a year. Radu Timis turned over the reins of the cold cuts, dairy and wine business to his son but remained chairman of the board, with less involvement in the operations. Radu Timis Jr. had previously served as chief commercial officer.
Alexandrion Group makes first international acquisition
Alexandrion Group, the largest spirits producer in Romania, has taken over the majority interest in beverage distributor Cavaway in Cyprus. This is the only international deal involving a local entrepreneur in 2019.
In 2017, Alexandrion decided to open its global operations office in Cyprus, to implement its global expansion plan and announced establishment of a representative office in Brazil in 2018 to manage the South American operations and the construction of the largest distillery in New York.
Angst returns to retail, plans 20 stores
Sorin Minea, the entrepreneur who controls the Angst group, which processes meat and makes ready meals, resumed the retail bet and plans to open some 20 Angst stores by end of 2020. The group had more than 20 such stores in Bucharest and around it until 2014 when it decided to sell them to retailer Mega Image, three months after leaving the Carrefour franchise.
Source: ZF English, December 2019
