“We hope to maintain at least the level registered in 2008,” the enterprise’s General Manager, Ion Stratila, told standard.ro. However, the company official did not indicate the absolute value of the 2008 financial indicators.
Stratila said that the textile market will level off in two-three years, when governments will have coherent strategies to face the financial crisis. “As the effects of the crisis wear off, the textile market will rise. It will probably begin to level off in two-three years. The market plunged compared to 2007,” said Rifil Savinesti’s General Manager.
The company posted RON 112.6 million (€33.8 mln) in net sales in 2007, down from the RON 124.4 mln (€35.3 mln) in 2006. Rifil Savinesti’s local level competitors include Rosko Textil, Vastex, Pasmatex, Iasitex, and Braiconf.
The local textile market has been subject to a downward trend since 2005, when China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), thus gaining tax free access to the European market, and when the national currency strengthened, which negatively affected Romanian textile exporters. In 2005, 90 percent of the domestic textile market was covered by imports from Asia, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INS).
