The IT and electronics sales remained subdued in the first quarter 2010, but the declines were not as large as in 2009, when the market slumped 43% to €1.42 billion. The biggest drops were observed in printers and multi functional devices in January and February, for which GfK Romania data are available.
IT and electronics sales stood 19% below year-ago levels, according to the market research company.
For the 12-month period ending February 28, small domestic appliances sales decreased 13.3% in volume and 14.6% in value. In 2009, the SDA sector fell 23.6% year-on-year, to €71million.
In January-February 2010 from the same period of a year earlier, the value of small domestic appliances sank 12.4% but rose in other Eastern European countries by 7.2% and by 6.7% in Western Europe.
Espresso machines using capsules and coffee/espresso fully automatic machines, deep fryers, blenders and floor cleaning mops managed to partially offset sales declines in other segments.
However, the biggest y-o-y decline in March 2009-February 2010 were observed in vacuum cleaners (-20%), hair care products (19.7%), irons (10.1%) and beverage makers (10.7%).
As for the major domestic appliances, sales dropped 14% in the first two months of 2010 from a year earlier. In 2009, major domestic appliances market shrank 37% to €334 million.
“In order to see a pickup in sales, consumers should loosen their purse strings. Only then the Romanian market will go back to the pre-crisis hefty growth rates”, said Friedmann Stoeckle, global director major domestic appliances, GfK Retail and Technology.
According to data provided by Stoeckle, 39 washing machines were sold per store, from 38/store in the first two months of 2009 and 58 in the same period of 2008.
The number of air conditioning units sold per store dropped from 47 items in Jan-Feb 2008 to 29
