Jihad Jabra, general manager and owner of the Supreme Group, producer of the Primola chocolate and of the Ulpio biscuits, says the company will start exports to Eastern Europe after Romania's EU accession.
"We feel we can generate higher sales by penetrating the foreign markets that we want to take a closer look at, in order to make business plans. To this end, we will start attending international fairs and we are likely to start exports in 2007," said Jihad Jabra.
The Supreme Group owner specified that the elimination of customs taxes for the trade with EU countries is an advantage, but the competitiveness of exports also depends on elements such as legislation or red tape, which also influence the producer's competitiveness when it comes to imports and which could be simplified after 2007. Currently, Supreme Group imports the bulk of the ingredients it uses in its Romanian-based plant.
Along with starting exports, Supreme also targets robust sales growth on the Romanian market.
"The Romanian market is profitable, but it depends on the angle. Romania's rather big population could be misleading, as there is a significant gap between urban and rural consumption. In terms of number of inhabitants, the ratio between urban and rural is almost equal, but 60-70% of the consumer goods are sold to just 30% of the inhabitants," noted Jabra.
This is the reason why Supreme Group has focused on distributing its products in Bucharest and in the big Romanian cities, which it completely covers through Supreme Distribution, which is part of the group. For the remaining areas, the company also uses regional distributors.
"Bucharest has, in terms of sweets consumption per capita, come close to the average of the countries in the area, therefore the growth potential of the market here is not as big as that of smaller cities or of the rural area.
