According to Jose Medran, General Manager of Procter & Gamble Romania, price increases on the consumer goods market, prompted by overall cost increases, have caused consumers to choose the products they buy more carefully.
Procter & Gamble, the largest player on the non-food consumer goods market, posted a consolidated turnover worth around 250 million euros and net profit with a 15% margin on the Romanian market in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2007.
The company is currently examining several locations in Romania, Poland and Russia with a view to building a regional plant that will manufacture beauty care products. P&G representatives estimate the decision on the location of the new plant, which will serve P&G markets in Central and Eastern Europe, will be made in late July.
"As general manager of P&G Romania, I will be Romania's ambassador for our organisation and aim to bring this major investment to the Romanian market. What will ultimately count will be the level of costs and the rate at which the investment is recouped," says Jose Medran, specifying that there were two potential locations under examination in Romania for the new plant. One could be the industrial park in Ploiesti, which, according to the park's chairman of the board of directors, has attracted the attention of a big cosmetics manufacturer.
'If Romania is chosen as a location for the future Procter & Gamble plant, this would be a separate project from the plant in Timisoara. In Timisoara, we acquired a plant that is dedicated to the local market, which we later turned into a regional plant, whereas this project has been thought of as a regional facility from the very start," specifies Medran.
At present, around 50% of the P&G's Timisoara-based plant's production is exported to eight Balkan countries and the company plans to expand the output and storage capacity o
