ROMANIA: Agricola gives up its retail division, but continues being on plus | Progresiv
Because of growing competition in proximity trade, Agricola, one of the most important players in the local meat industry, has left the retail business, some of the stores being taken over by other players in the market, while the rest have been closed. 
At the beginning of last year, Agricola Magazine counted 35 units, of which 22 are owned by the company and the rest are rented.
"Agricola continued this year's business focusing strategy on core-business group companies, and even if it left two services - agriculture services and proximity retail, it has made significant increases on the base categories so that at nine months in 2018, we report an increase of over 10% in our group's business", says Grigore Horoi, president of Agricola Bacau.
Thus, in the first 9 months of 2018, the Agricola group of companies reported businesses of 554.88 million lei, up by 10.28% over the same period last year. Performance was driven by increases in group sales, with all divisions being on plus.
The best performance was recorded by the fresh eggs category. Avicola Lumina Constanta reported a 27% growth in value to business of 39.53 million lei, while the volume increased by 23.5% (59.86 million eggs).
An advance of over 20% was also recorded on the category of pre-prepared and ready-meal products, obtained at the Europrod factory. The company reported an advance of 23.9% to 40.14 million lei, as exports to EU countries increased by 23%.
Agricola International, the company's most important group, which integrates the poultry production chain and the logistics operator, registered in the first three quarters of this year a turnover of 346.85 million lei, up by 15.55% compared to the same period last year.
As for Salbac's performance, the company producing cold cuts and meat products, reached 98.72 million lei, up by 8% from the first three quarters of last year. "The sales of raw-dry salami reported a 9% increase in volume and 7.32% in volume respectively. At the same time, the boiled-smoked salami reported an increase of 7.24% in volumes, respectively, a similar value increase", says Grigore Horoi.
Agricola is one of the largest producers of poultry meat in Romania and the main exporter in the category. The company owns 18% of the poultry meat market and in the category of ready-meal products and Sibiu Salami the company is a market leader with a share of 19%, respectively, 50% of the total segment, according to Nielsen data, communicated by the company.
