Romanian Retailers Expect Consumption To Keep Shrinking In ‘11

Marius Melesteu, chief executive of coffee maker Strauss Romania, believes unemployment will grow and people will redirect their money towards more urgent expenditure, such as utility bills.

A small improvement is seen towards the end of next year, according to Robert Redeleanu, CEO of canned foods maker Scandia.

"I believe in the first six months we will go through dire straits,... but we will probably see some improvement in the second half of 2011," he said.

The pessimistic standpoint is also shared by Raul Ciurtin, general manager of dairy maker Albalact Alba Iulia, whose best case scenario for 2011 predicts a flat consumption.

Albert Davidoglu, National Customer Development Director at Unilever, partly blames the low consumer confidence on excessive promotional campaigning, which shrinks the market's overall value.

An optimistic note was brought by Bogdan Popescu, Head of Strategic Project Management Metro Cash&Carry Romania, who believes the worst of the measures has passed and things should soon start to look up.

"The crisis is an opportunity, just like wars, during which there were some of the greatest technological and scientific discoveries made. Such circumstances pushed people to become inventive. One starts seeking new ways of improving efficiency," Popescu said.

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