Apemin Tusnad wants partnership with foreign juice firm

Gyarfas Kurko, the general manager of Tusnad mineral water bottler, says he is likely to form a distribution partnership with a foreign producer of juices and nectars in a bid to expand the company’s business to other segments besides mineral water.
Apemin Tusnad plans to tap into the juice market through its own products, as well as through imports of a foreign brand.
“By late June, we will have finished testing out the installation that makes soft drinks and in the future we want to enter the still drinks segment, namely non-carbonated soft drinks with a fruit content of up to 20%. Our aim is to become an important player on this segment, as well,” says Gyarfas Kurko.
The company, present on the market with Tusnad mineral water, Izvorul Zanelor spring water and Izvorul Ascuns table water, expects to generate sales worth 15m euros this year, up almost 70% against 2006.
“We are in talks for a possible partnership with a juice and nectar producer to import and distribute these products in Romania, through the Apemin Tusnad network,” Gyarfas Kurko also said.
After establishing their distribution system, mineral water bottlers take a further step to expand their activity by entering the segment of carbonated or non-carbonated fruit juices. The category of still drinks (with a fruit content of up to 25%) was the most targeted in recent years owing to the sales increases the segment has boasted each year.
Apemin Tusnad last month started operating a new bottling line, which tripled its production capacity in Tusnad. “Last autumn, we started a development programme that’s very close to completion. As part of this project, we invested almost 7m euros in a Krones bottling line, with a production capacity of 24,000 litres per hour, a soft drinks manufacturing installation, a warehouse for finite products and a new office building,” states Kurko.
Apemin Tusnad last year bottled around 61 million litres and expects sales of 90 million litres of water for 2007. Investments meant to boost production capacity will take the company’s number of employees to 200 by yearend, from 143 in late 2006.
As for the distribution operations, Kurko also anticipates investments of 3m euros by yearend in a project initiated in 2006.
Apemin Tusnad generated turnover close to 8.8m euros in 2006, up around 33% year-on-year. The company doubled its net income last year, to 0.5m euros, from 0.2m euros in 2005. Apemin Tusnad is entirely held by Romanian investors.
On the mineral water market, estimated at 1.1 billion litres and over 300m euros, the biggest players are Romaqua group, Coca-Cola HBC, European Drinks, Perla Harghitei and Apemin Tusnad. Romanian consumption of mineral water is still way below the European average.

Apemin Tusnad
Could form a distribution partnership with a foreign producer of juices and nectars in a bid to expand operations on other segments besides mineral water
Present on the market with Tusnad mineral water, Izvorul Zanelor spring water and Izvorul Ascuns table water, expects to generate sales worth 15m euros this year, up almost 70% against 2006
Generated turnover close to 8.8m euros in 2006, up around 33% year-on-year and its net income doubled last year, to 0.5m euros