Gilda Ardeleanu, development manager of Top Brands Distribution (TBD), the second-largest player on the Romanian distribution market, says the company's strategy involves focusing on partnerships with big manufacturers, rather than approaching new categories of products.

"We have had a lot of partnership proposals and there are many categories of consumer goods with a high development potential on the Romanian market, but we would rather concentrate on the segments where we are currently present. Moreover, from a logistic point of view, it is easier to distribute fewer product categories," said Gilda Ardeleanu.

TBD this year became the distributor of Philip Morris products in Arges county and plans to continue its regional expansion, which will push the company's business up and at the same time strengthen its partnerships with the two manufacturers it works with, Philip Morris Romania and Kraft Foods Romania.

The company currently distributes 37% of Philip Morris Romania's output, in nine counties, being also a distributor for Kraft Foods Romania in Bucharest as well as in Ilfov and Teleorman counties.

Gilda Ardeleanu states that the degree of involvement in partnerships with manufacturers is very important in the distribution field, because business depends on how professional distributors are, but the distributor is also tied, to a certain degree, to the supplier.

"We are the eyes of the manufacturers on the market. For example, the Philip Morris sales representatives directly interact with our sales representatives, and the two teams have weekly meetings to exchange information," Ardeleanu says.

The players on the distribution market will be ranked in the next few years by the services they offer, say companies in the field.

"Being professional in the distribution field means having well displayed products, having enough