Elmiplant Plans Turnover Growth Through Product Re-Launch

Cornelia Angelescu

"Practically, all of our company"s products will be re-launched under new formulas, new packaging and new concepts."

After the completion of the sale in December 2007, Elmi Prodfarm remained a distinct legal entity, part of Sarantis Group Romania. Elena Cremenescu, Deputy CEO of Elmi Prodfarm - Bucharest, told BURSA: "The team remained unchanged, with the exception of the sales force, who were taken over by Sarantis Romania. Concurrently, starting in the beginning of 2008, Sarantis Greece tasked a team from the Marketing Department to work together with the marketing team of Elmiplant on the new product positioning, the strategy for the following years and the creation of a new product portfolio."

Based on the analyses made by these teams, the Research - Development Department of Elmiplant started making the necessary adjustments. According to Elena Cremenescu, the first results will be visible in up to one month from now. "Practically, all of our company"s products will be re-launched under new formulas, new packaging and new concepts. Our strategy is to become the most dynamic local producer of facial skin care products, body lotions and sun block lotions. Based on what we have achieved so far, there are very good chances that this may happen sooner than we thought," Cremenescu added.

• Crisis does not stop Elmiplant from launching new cosmetics

The company is re-launching this month the Elmiplant sun block range, which is the first Romanian product range to fully comply with the latest European Union recommendations in this field. The Elmiplant body care range of 19 products will be re-launched in May and June, including the well-known Cellulight lotion. The Sombrero range will only be sold on the Romanian market until the end of the year, when it will be discontinued. The Elmiplant and Bioten facial skin care ranges will be re-launched this Autumn.

"Over 60 products will be re-launched this year, which requires a tremendous amount of work from all the departments involved in this process - Marketing, Research-Development, Production. The Elmiplant and Bioten brands will receive massive investments focused on consolidating brand identity in the consumers" minds. We are looking at a huge potential considering that, based on the surveys made last year, our products are widely appreciated, but miss modern packaging and a high degree of information availability," Cremenescu added.

Elmi Prodfarm currently has 60 employees. In 2008, exports accounted for 6% of the turnover and were focused on the Republic of Moldova, Canada, the U.S. and Israel. In 2010, the company will start exporting via the Sarantis network, which covers Central and South Eastern Europe and should boost Elmiplant export volumes.

In 2008, the turnover consolidated at Elmi Prodfarm product level amounted to 13.5 million RON. Elena Cremenescu believes that, in 2009, "the turnover will increase significantly, as the main products in our portfolio are going to be re-launched. I believe that the general cosmetics market will stagnate, especially on the segments that are not regarded as absolutely necessary," Cremenescu added.

"Regarding the crisis, which has kicked in over the past few months, I can say that we expected something worse. Generally speaking, our customers have been more cautious about what they buy and how much they buy. At consumer level, the crisis has not affected us, considering that our sales even increased from the corresponding period of 2008. The mass media were an essential relay of crisis warnings, which made all of us a little bit more moderate about our spending," Cremenescu added.

In Romania, Sarantis has a country-wide distribution network for the Sarantis products, including the men"s ranges STR8 and Dare, the women"s ranges B.U., C-Thru, X-Pose, the show polish range Camel and the Fino product range