“The year 2008 was very good for Mars Romania, because we met our goal, which was to consolidate our leading position on both the chocolate bar and the pet food segments,” Tomasz Pawlowski, the enterprise’s General Manager, told Business Standard.
The company official said that Romania registered the highest increase on the chocolate bar segment in 2008, compared to neighboring countries, with sales worth RON 144.4 mln (€39 mln), according to the latest Nielsen market research company study. Pawlowski added that “while the chocolate bar segment surged 44 percent in Romania in 2008, and by 28 percent in Bulgaria,” Poland and Croatia registered increases of 16 percent and 5.5 percent, respectively.
Mars representatives expect the chocolate bar segment to register the highest growth rate on the local chocolate market, a trend which was also observed in previous years. The domestic sweets market is estimated to be worth €318 mln, and its main players are Mars, Nestle, Kraft, Ulker, and Cadbury.
Chocolate bars make up 42.2 percent of the company’s global portfolio, considering that Mars produces seven of the 20 best-sold snacks in the world.
