At present, Heidi exports to 13 countries, and will enter the Russian and Ukrainian markets in 2009. “Exports have doubled in the past four months, and they currently make up 12 percent of our turnover. We have recently come into contact with large retailers in Poland, where the chocolate market is four times larger than in Romania,” the General Manager of Heidi Romania, Erwin Vondenhoff, told Business Standard. Vondenhoff added that, as of last December, Heidi’s products are present on the Italian, Bulgarian, Czech, and Hungarian markets, and eight other markets.
Heidi’s strategy targets markets with potential, with significant annual growth, and where consumers can be persuaded to opt for a more expensive rather than a less expensive chocolate. “In the aforementioned countries, the chocolate market is 4-50 percent larger than in Romania, but if we analyze the premium segment, competition is not so fierce,” the company official said.
Exports will make up one fifth of the total turnover at the end of this year, Vondenhoff added. The rebranding campaign planned for this year will help Heidi’s products gain market share. Company officials expect net sales to rise 15-20 percent in 2009, due to exports, in spite of the economic crisis.
The value of the total Romanian sweets market amounted to RON 1.17 billion (€318 million) in 2008, according to the Nielsen market research company, up 27.7 percent year-on-year. The five-largest producers on the chocolate tablet market are Kraft, Supreme Group, Cadbury, Ferrero, and Heidi Chocolat.
