May 2010

Electronics market collapses
The Romanian market for electronic devices collapses. In the first quarter of this year, the market came to a volume of 271 million Euro. In the last quarter of 2009 the market volume had reached 428 million Euro - most certainly, based on Christmas shopping. Also the corresponding previous year quarter showed significantly higher sales of 361 million Euro. Compared with the so far weakest quarter of the last four years (i.e. the second quarter of 2009), the decline was 13.4 percent. Although the FIFA World Cup 2010 and 3D are expected to boost the sales of flat panel displays, the representatives of large retail chains still do not believe in a fundamental improvement of market conditions in the coming months.

April 2010

LCD And Plasma TVs Are Still Selling Good
Neither the price of 2000 Euros nor the lack of live material have deterred anyone: LG Romania sold all the available 3D television sets on the day of the market entrance, but without giving any indication about the number of available television sets. The crisis seems to have stopped in Romania with respect to LCD and plasma television sets. Last year, television sets for a total of 212 million Euro were sold, as was recent reports showed. Sales of audio-video equipment fell last year compared to the year before by about 30 per cent. Nevertheless, Romanians bought last December, almost twice as many TVs as in the month before.

March 2010

Scop Computers In Danger To Lose Market Leadership?
The crisis has brought them together: After the sales of the IT distribution company Tornado Sistems had slumped by 50 per cent in 2008, the company's management decided to join with former competitors RHS Company and Scop Computers. Scop dropped the deal. At the end of 2009 the two left companies had sales worth 110 million Euro. Even this could not stop the crisis. Last year, 400,000 Euro had to be written off to bad debts. Four times more than in the previous ten years added together - as the companies told. RHS-Tornado expects a growth of this year sales by 20 per cent and to rise to the number one - before Scop Computers. The Romanian IT distribution market is estimated at around 600 million Euro (2009) - a relapse by 40 per cent over the 2008. In 2010 the market is estimated to grow by 10-15 per cent.

February 2010

Romanian Market For Electrical Appliances Went Down By 43,2 Per Cent
The Romanian market for household electrical appliances and electronics slumped by 43.2 per cent in the last quarter of last year over the corresponding quarter last year, the German market researcher GfK (Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung) had found out. Market volume was at 421.8 million Euro in the last quarter, the annual volume was at 1.44 billion Euro, representing a decrease by 42.6 per cent. Not even the holiday shopping season could change that. With a decline of 55 per cent to the previous quarter, the segment of office electronics recorded the largest decrease.

January 2010

Monopolies Commission Looks Into Takeover Of Flamingo's Distribution by Asesoft
The Romanian Competition Authority has taken under the microscope the acquisition of a part of the IT distribution of Flamingo International SA by Asesoft concluded in March last year. Asesoft insists that the acquisition would not constitute economic concentration, as stated in the antitrust law and thus was not to be reported to the authority. The later sees things differently. In March last year Asesoft distribution was reported to have taken over the indirect sales contracts of Flamingo Distribution Center. Flamingo wanted to keep the retail business and the so-called corporate business. After all the takeover was concerning about 15 per cent of Flamingo's sales from 2008, which was around 200 million Euro.