Decades of experience, international management and strong financial support. It sounds like the perfect recipe for success, but things are not always as they should be. Take, for instance, Perrier Vittel, the mineral water arm of Europe's largest foods group, Nestle, which has admitted to failure on the Romanian market. The company gave up on a business that got off to a great start in 1997, but managed to expire in the meantime.
Perrier Vittel Romania, the company that attempted to conquer the Romanian mineral water market with the Ana Vie brand between 1997-2000 is now about to sell all of its important assets (the plant, the production halls etc.) to the Romanian distribution company Gabi's & Papa Reale, based in Brasov.
The Ana Vie brand was pulled from the market in 2000, and these signals indicate that Perrier Vittel has definitely given up on the Romanian market, after four years of conserving the business.
"We are about to sell the Ana Vie mineral water plant in Miercurea Ciuc. We have decided to cease our operations in this line of business and in this particular area," Paul Nuber, general manager of Nestle Romania told Ziarul Financiar.
Gabriel Stan, general manager and one of the main shareholders of Gabi's & Papa Reale has confirmed the takeover procedures with regard to the Perrier Vittel assets, but would not volunteer further details about the company's future plans for this business.
"The transaction has not been finalised yet. We will be able to provide further details in September," Stan stated.
Nestle's Paul Nuber said that the Ana Vie water source will no longer be used, since the Gabi's & Papa Reale company that is taking over the facilities will not invest in mineral water bottling, but in other products.
"The company that has bought the factory will invest in a different line of production activity there and the Nestle employees can be transferred to the new activities," the general manager of Nestle Romania maintained.
According to Nuber, Nestle remains open to the opportunities that might present themselves on the Romanian mineral water market. The company is willing to reinvest in this field, should a viable opportunity emerge.
Vittel Perrier, the mineral water division of Nestle, entered the market in 1997 when it built a mineral water bottling factory in Jigodin (near Miercurea Ciuc), under an initial investment estimated by market sources as standing at more than 10 million dollars.
The group decided to build a new plant after looking to take over several Romanian companies and concluding that they were not able to secure sufficient water quality at that point.
When the new brand was launched, Perrier Vittel decided not to use its own brands, as it did not want to leave Romanian consumers with the impression that they were buying an expensive product. The group thus created a brand especially for the Romanian market - Ana Vie.
Problems appeared from the first year, when the company encountered technical and quality issues at the plant and was not able to get the product onto the market.
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro ; georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro
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