ROMANIA: Premiere for Unilact – exports have exceeded internal sales | Progresiv
Unilact Transilvania, the producer of dairy brand De la Ferma, registered last year, for the first time, higher export sales than on the Romanian market. Thus, in July the balance changed in favor of exports and the company ended the year with 52% sales on foreign markets. 
"We want to strengthen our relationship with the new distributors and add the new range of bellows cheese >. We plan to sell in the US for the first time a cheese made 100% of sheep milk. We had an unpleasant experience in the past with a distributor in Sweden and we have been away from the Nordic countries since then. We want to go back and find distributors there too", said for Progresiv Marius Bicu, owner of Unilact Transilvania.
The company's products currently reach countries like Germany, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Cyprus, Great Britain and Luxembourg.
Last year, Unilact Transilvania ended with 20% higher turnover than in 2016, exceeding 20 million lei. Regarding profitability, the company ended with 2.6 million lei, on the grounds of three reasons invoked by the owner of the producer: "three important salary increases, a double marketing budget, a considerable increase of the raw material prices in the second half of the year ".
For the current year, Unilact Transilvania plans to increase ten times the production capacity for bellows cheese.
"When we buy machinery, we think about what we will need in three years, not now. Sales of bellows have increased this year by 30% and we want to increase production next year. We're going to launch a whole range of premium bellows cheese under the brand De la Ferma. The objective is to get the texture of the bellows cheese traditionally mowed with modern machines", says Marius Bicu.
Also, the producer plans to increase the team with six new employees.
The priority list for 2018 also includes investments in new machinery and buildings, marketing and team. The budget amounts to 2.5 million lei.
Regarding the estimated turnover this year, the owner of Unilact Transilvania speaks of exceeding the 5 million euro threshold, which means a 15% increase compared to 2017.
"We grew to export a lot in 2017 and we want to grow a lot in Romania in 2018. We are negotiating with a distributor to help with his > to reach more customers in the country. We are present in modern national trade only in hypermarkets (Kaufland, Carrefour, Auchan) and we want to get to supermarkets and in proximity with the help of the new distributor. We also expect a big increase in bellows cheese. We plan to double sales over last year", Bicu explained.
Unilact Transilvania is one of the main local dairy producers, owning a dairy production unit, a farm and over 1,000 hectares of agricultural land in Unirea in Alba County. The Unilact Transilvania plant processes 15,000 liters of milk per day and 25% of the required raw material is provided by its own farm, which houses 900 sheep and 370 cattle.
