Danone sees sales up by 5-10%

Danone Romania, leader of the domestic yoghurt market, expects sales to rise by 5-10% in volume this year, above the 3% increase registered in 2009, amid investments worth around 20m RON (around 4.7m euros) meant to boost the production capacity of Danone Bucharest plant. Danone representatives did not disclose the production capacity of the plant, but mentioned one million Danone products were sold daily in Romania and this year’s investments would drive up production by 10%. “I expect 2010 to be better than 2009. Growth will come amid the rising consumption per capita (of fresh dairy products) through innovations,” stated Stephane Batoux, general manager of Danone Romania. “We usually invest 3% of the company’s annual production to develop new products,” added the general manager of Danone, a company with 435m RON (102.5m euros) turnover last year, up 3% in RON from the 2008 results. “I cannot provide any estimates about this year’s turnover and particularly profit, firstly because we want to provide only figures we are certain of and secondly because the government announced some measures and it’s hard for us to estimate their future impact over consumption,” Batoux said.