Cotnari strategy changes due to frost

Laurentiu Anghel, the marketing manager of Iasi-based winemaker Cotnari, announced an increase in prices by up to 20% in comparison to their current level, to offset the output losses caused due to the low outdoor temperatures recently. “We will have additional costs, and also a decline the amount of production, due to the frost. We will able to estimate the production losses this year in a week,” Laurentiu Anghel added. At the end of October, the company promised that prices would be frozen until the end of 2006. “Initially, our plans did not include any price increase for this year, particularly because the 2005 results were good and the production was not affected by the floods,” Anghel said. He added that once temperatures fell to minus 25 degrees Celsius in the Cotnari area, the company decided to increase the wine price as of the beginning of this March. In 2005 Cotnari posted 65 million RON (17 million euro) turnover, up 20% on 2004. Net profit stood at 2.6 million RON (0.7 million euros). Also last year the company sold more than 8.4 million bottles of wine, about 6.2 million litres. Cotnari was one of the winemakers whose grape yield was not affected last year, with its representatives announcing a yield of 10 million kilos of grapes from its 1,300 hectares of vineyard. ZF