"Outstanding" Q3 for Kraft Romania

Kraft Foods Romania (KFRo)’s sales seem to have started to rebound from the 2002 decline, as the parent company announced “outstanding” Q3 results on the domestic market, as well as in Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Still, the dwindling consumption on the European market has pretty much dwarfed the performance in the region. The company in 2002 logged $50.2 million sales, down nearly 8% from 2001. Losses progressed from $3.2 million to $5.7 million, according to Finance Ministry data. The Romanian branch representatives could not be reached for comment. KFRo is one of the most important players on the chocolate and coffee market in Romania. The company’s chocolate brand portfolio includes Poiana, Africana, Milka, Toblerone or Smash, while its coffee brands sold on this market are Jacobs and Nova Brasilia. Both the packaged coffee and the chocolate market have seen decline over the last two years, which producers in the two industries blame the low purchasing power for. The decline for coffee was the sharpest in the last few years, 20%, and maintained all through the year. The parent company in Q3 made $810 million net profit, down 6.8% from the same time last year. Sales went up 3.7% reaching $7.48bn, even though shipment volume dropped by 0.2%. ZF