Pepsi and Coca-Cola's turnover down for the first time in 2009

Pepsi and Coca-Cola soft drinks giants, which account for almost three quarters of the domestic market together, saw their sales volumes shrink by more than 10% in 2009 year-on-year. 2009 is the first year when they faced major consumption declines, according to the data included in Romania’s business yearbook “Biggest players in the economy” , to be published in late June. Greek company’s Coca-Cola Hellenic 2009 financial report reveals a 12% decline in sales volumes on the Romanian market against 2008. 2009 effectively wiped out the increase the company posted in 2008 against the previous period. In its turn, Pepsi Americas, entirely taken over by US giant PepsiCo this year, reported an over 10% decrease in volumes sold in Romania during the same interval. In a single year, soft drinks giant thus went from double-digit growth rates to declines of over 10% on a market that before the crisis promised consumption increases for many years on. Despite producers’ having bet on rising consumption of natural juices in recent years, this year’s market dynamics shows trends are rather dictated by the crisis.