Romania's home appliances retailers' turnover could pass 2-billion-euro mark in 2018 (analysis)

The turnover of Romania's home appliances retailers could pass the 2 billion-euro mark this year, amid the increased appetite of the Romanians for Black Friday and Christmas shopping seasons, according to a KeysFin analysis released on Friday.

"The home appliances retail trade is very well controlled by a few major investors. Thus, although there are over 600 companies nationwide, too few of them manage to compete with the big players. This explains why the number of companies decreased last year by 8pct when compared with 2016 and by 15pct from 2013. We expect the consolidation process to continue and major investments, in stores and logistics networks and especially in the online environment, will contribute to the market coagulation process," reveal the analysts.

The KeysFin analysis, based on the financial data reported by companies with the retail sales of electrical home appliances in specialized stores (NACE code 4754) as main scope of activity shows that this market is highly concentrated, with five companies generating 93pct of total market turnover.

According to 2017 data, the market leader is DANTE INTERNATIONAL SA (eMag) with a turnover of 3.31 billion lei, which represents 39.7pct of the total national turnover. ALTEX ROMANIA SRL is second, with sales of 3.28 billion lei (39.4pct), followed by FLANCO RETAIL SA (983 million lei, 11.8pct of the total), EURO GSM IMPEX SRL, (113 million lei, 1.4pct of the total) and GORENJE ROMANIA SRL (77.6 million lei, 0.9pct of the total).

"As DANTE INTERNATIONAL SA (eMag) focused on significant investments, announcing the launch of the largest deposit facility in Romania, ALTEX ROMANIA SRL was awarded the title of the most profitable company, with a positive result of 48.7 million lei in 2017. The leader board of the most profitable companies in the market includes DOMO SRL (6.4 million lei), FLANCO RETAIL SA (5.2 million lei), NORDIC ROMAR SRL (4.9 million lei) and EURO GSM IMPEX SRL (4.3 million lei). Together, the most profitable 5 companies generated 70.3pct of total market profit," the KeysFin analysis shows.

The KeysFin analysis shows that, from the geographical point of view, Bucharest and Ilfov attract the largest businesses, amounting to over 7.7 billion lei in 2017. Far behind is Cluj (127.8 million lei), Botosani (56.4 million lei) and Constanta (50.6 million lei). Together, the top five counties generated over 95ct of total market turnover.

The turnover of this market increased in 2017 by 21pct when compared with 2016, to 8.35 billion lei, and by 120pct from five years ago. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Badea, editor: Oana Tilica; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)