Popa, Transavia: There's a very high focus on price

Alba Iulia-based Transavia group, the biggest poultry producer domestically, ended last year with 16% higher turnover in RON and flat turnover in euros, at 405.7m RON (95.7m euros), amid the population’s shift to cheap products. “Transavia registered growth in 2009 as well, a year of economic challenges, because we sold everything we produced, though at lower prices. Both domestically and on foreign markets, clients’ demands are moving to cheap products, so that nobody is asking you any more what you are selling, but at what prices,” states Ioan Popa, 53, Transavia founder and general manager. He added the current price level was similar with that in the autumn of 2007. The shifting consumer preferences led Transavia to cut its promotion budget, but Popa did not disclose its value. While he believes price pressures will be heavier in 2010 as the economic downturn is being truly felt in Romania as late as this year, Ioan Popa projects renewed turnover growth. “For Transavia, 2010 is a year of consolidation, a year when we want to reach turnover increase of around 10-15% (in RON i.e.), even as prices are now below last year’s”. Popa expects to end 2010 with turnover of between 420-450m RON.