Local scooter market, only 1,000 units

In Western Europe, scooters are among the handiest transportation means, especially for young people. Crowded traffic makes a motorbike very helpful when one wants to get somewhere very fast. Although we are catching up with crowding, the Romanian market potential is only 20% covered.
“The potential of these products in Romania is 5,000 units a year,” says Florin Stanciu, executive manager of Paneuro Trading, a company specialising in import and distribution of car parts.
Paneuro became a dealer of the Italian Piaggio scooters on the Romanian market last fall.
“However, we did sell 420 motor scooters in the first ten months of the year, with 600 units in total sales figures for 2002,” Stanciu added.
He says the company’s share of the scooter market amounts to 63%, which means total sales of new scooters will reach 1,000 units this year.
The main competitors for the brands Paneuro Trading represents in Romania are, according to Stanciu, Suzuki and Yamaha. “We, however, have 12 offices across the country, which makes for a good coverage of our brands nationwide, compared with the other scooter-making companies,” Stanciu said.
The price of a Piaggio scooter is about 2,000 euros, VAT not included, Stanciu specifies, which could explain the low sales on the Romanian market (this money buys a two-year old Dacia).
The maximum speed of such a scooter varies according to the model and can be up to 100 kilometres an hour, which made the Romanian Police include scooters in their vehicle stock since the beginning of this month. The Traffic Police in Bucharest bought nine Piaggio scooters in late October.
Paneuro Trading posted 15.6 million euros in ten-month turnover this year, forecasting 24m euros for yearend, up 65% since the end of last year. Paneuro Trading accounts for more than half the turnover posted by the Paneuro Group, which includes another 12 companies, dealing with car sales, leasing, transportation, constructions and cable production.