Alexandrion: 2010 was an extremely slow year

Gyuri Eperjessy, commercial manager with Alexandrion Grup Romania alcoholic drinks producer, estimates the alcoholic drinks market dropped by 20% in 2010, with the entire year having been “extremely weak” in this industry.
“2010 saw a dramatic decline in alcoholic beverage consumption, with the main cause being the falling purchasing power, but also the shift to the low and lowest price segment,” said Eperjessy. He values the market at around 360m euros and some 40 million litres.
Alexandrion Grup Romania last year generated 33.8m-euro turnover and in 2010 sales are likely to post a “slight advance”. For next year, the company has budgeted a 5% increase, while the market forecasts point to a 5% increase “at best, while a realistic scenario would indicate stagnation”. In terms of volume, the company expects to sell 22 million bottles in 2011.
“Looking at each month of the January-September 2010 period against the same periods of 2009, we can expect a decline for December as well, but not as steep as in the first part of the year,” Alexandrion official also said.