Indesit estimates 60 million-euro sales

Eugen Paturan, the country manager for Romania of Italian home appliance producer Indesit, says the company”s sales will maintain at 60 million euros this year, amid a decline of the overall market.

Indesit, which owns the Indesit and Ariston brands, last year derived turnover worth 60 million euros from the domestic market.

“We saw our turnover in Romania go up 13% from 2004, amid a drop of the entire market.

“The market decline will continue this year, but I believe our figures will remain unchanged, namely 290,000 units and 60 million euros, like in 2005. This means we will expand our market share, just as we did last year,” says Eugen Paturan.

According to Paturan, the Italian group will come to hold a 20% share of the household appliances market. Indesit will hold the best position, with more than 18%, while luxury brand Ariston will get a 2% market share.

The surge in market share was registered amid a decline in prices of electrical home appliances, which hurt the profitability rate.

“At 250 euros, the current price of a washing machine, prices cannot go much lower, as margins are already very small in the field of home appliances.

“The consumers” income must go up. In this context, lending may become less important in selling home appliances,” believes Paturan.

According to the Indesit official, specialised retailers will no longer rely on lending systems to boost their sales, as has happened so far.

“The product”s price and features will gain more importance, as credits will not account for more than 15%-20% of the total purchases,” Paturan says.

The Italian producer has a subsidiary in Romania, but no commercial activities.

The office has ten employees.

“We are not planning to set up our own company to handle commercial activities.

“We are doing this in Hungary and the Czech Republic, where independent players have an important position on the market, but, in Romania, we work mainly with national retailers such as Altex, Domo and Flanco.

“We also have a distributor covering the independent players countrywide,” Paturan explains.

Independent players accounted for less than 20% of Indesit sales last year, close to the share of international networks (Metro, Selgros, Carrefour, etc.). “We make most sales through Altex, Flanco and Domo – 50%-60% of our turnover,” says Paturan.