Arctic breaks 100 mil. euro sales mark

Home appliances manufacturer Arctic will break the 100 million euro sales mark this year for the first time since its privatisation almost seven years ago.

“Arctic’s turnover in Romania rose 20% in 2004 compared with 2003 to 90 million euros. Sales for this year are set to reach 105 million euros,” said Monica Iavorschi, Arctic’s marketing and sales manager.

The figures include both the refrigerator products that Arctic manufactures at its Gaesti facility and the Arctic-branded washing machines, vacuum cleaners and TV sets made at the factories owned by Arcelik, the Turkish company that is main shareholder in Arctic.

Turnover last year at the refrigerator factory amounted to more than 120 million euros, according to corporate data, with most of the production going to export.

Almost two thirds of the 750,000 refrigerators manufactured at the Gaesti plant last year were exported to countries like France, Germany, UK and Poland.

The volume will grow even more this year, since investments of over 17-18 million euros made in the last two years enabled the factory to reach a 1.1 million refrigerator production capacity.

The increase in Arctic’s sales will be higher than overall market growth, company officials say.

“We estimate constant market growth of 3 to 5% a year for the next three to five years. The growth will be generated by purchasing power, improvements to financial services and by the significant drop in prices, especially for electronics and IT products,” said Iavorschi.

Arctic Gaesti was established in 1968, however it was four years before the first home appliance product came out in 1972. After 1989, Romania’s largest refrigerator maker found itself strapped for cash due to the collapse of its domestic and foreign markets and a strategic investor became a necessity.

Arctic was privatised in 1997 and its main shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Societe Generale Romania Fund, a Societe Generale fund, implemented a retooling and upgrading plan, and carried out restructuring.
ionut.bonoiu@zf.ro