ROMANIA: Dr Gerard aims acquisitions on the local confectionery market | Progresiv
Polish confectionery producer Dr Gerard, which opened late last year a subsidiary in Romania, has already reached sales of 4 million euros locally and aims to aquire companies in order to improve its market position. 
"In 2015, our company acquired Polish producer Artur and we continue to target acquisitions in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. We analyze markets in Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia for identifying such opportunities. We are not interested necessarily in the acquisition of production facilities, because we have our own capacities in Poland, in which we invest constantly, but we're looking for companies with strong brands enabling us to improve our market position", said Jaroslaw Michal Zawadzki, General Manager Dr Gerard Group.
Dr Gerard is a company headquartered in Warsaw, founded in 1993, which in 2013 was acquired by the investment fund Bridgepoint. The producer has two factories in Poland and distributes its products in over 30 countries on three continents. His focus at the moment is on Central and Eastern Europe, where in the last year opened four subsidiaries: in Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.
"In the region, our sales will reach 20 million euros at the end of 2016, and next year we plan an increase of 20%. In Romania we tripled our sales in the first year in which we operated with our own legal entity compared to the previous year in which we operated through local distributors", said Zawadzki.
Romanian subsidiary of Dr Gerard currently has 16 employees and a distribution system covering traditional and modern trade, reaching in total about 10,000 points of sale.
At group level, Dr Gerard portfolio currently includes more than 200 types of biscuits, wafers and crackers, and sales this year will reach 83 million euros, up by approximately 18% from 2015.
