Unilever becomes third leading player on ice-cream market

With a promotion budget topping the cumulated one of the top four Romanian producers this summer, Unilever has become one of the top three players on an ice-cream market put at 120-140m euros in less than a year.
Algida’s arrival changed the hierarchy on the Romanian ice-cream market: supported by strong promotion, the newest unit Unilever brought in Romania at the end of summer ranked third among the biggest players in terms of value share, according to MEMRB data. Unilever representatives put the company’s market share at 13.4%, quoting the same MEMRB survey.
On the other hand, the biggest Romanian producers are still reporting sales increases and say the toughest battle was fought during the summer season between Algida and Nestlé, the only foreign players on the market. “Algida is fighting Nestlé on the Romanian market, we do not see foreign players as direct rivals,” states Ioan Istrate, owner of Alpin 57 Lux company producing Alpin ice-cream.
The Romanian ice-cream market, put at 120-140m euros, is dominated by companies owned by Romanian entrepreneurs. They generated over 70% of total ice-cream sales in Romania last year.
In his turn, Vasile Armenean, owner of Betty Ice, the biggest Romanian ice-cream producer, maintains Betty Ice gained market share during this year’s season. Top Gel also reported rising sales. The producer of Amicii ice cream, Kubo Ice Cream, specified the company posted flat sales this year.
Unilever’s biggest stake this year was to tap into the market with the premium products of Algida’s portfolio, which directly compete with Nestlé Ice Cream and Betty Blue and other products of Romanian companies.
At the same time, Romanian producers could not ignore Unilever’s charge into the medium and low-price segments of the ice-cream market, accounting for around three quarters of total volume sales domestically.
To tackle the most developed segment of the market, Unilever this year made two important moves: it acquired Napoca brand from Friesland Foods in the early 2009 and several months later launched Big Milk ice-cream on the market, a product manufactured in Poland and distributed only in Romania. With its price way below Algida’s portfolio average, Big Milk rivals most products brought onto the market by Romanian companies.