EVEN FACED WITH SHRINKING DEMAND, "Plastic Industries" expects to keep 90% of its traditional customers

Cornelia Angelescu

Created in 2003, "Plastic Industries" SRL of Arad, that has 15 workers specializing in producing PVC plastic welded sheets, is currently facing a drop in demand.

The company"s manager, Ştefan Cugerian-Raţiu, said: "The first half of 2008 was good. Then the market slowed significantly, and the trend continued in 2009. Compared to 2008, customer demand dropped 20%. Right now, it all depends on an uncertain market".

During its operations, "Plastic Industries" had important automotive clients and requests for packaging from a large French textile producer. Due to dropping demand on their own market, order from the French company have dropped accordingly. The company however has ongoing for stationery products, promotional items, nametag and price holders etc.

Ştefan Cugerian-Raţiu said: "We can produce any type of plastic welded PVC sheet items. We have competitive Italian production machinery. We can make transparent, colored or mixed products in a large range of colors. Apart from PVC items, we can make various other accessories: staples, buttons and Velcro. We can make products bearing our customers" brand, and we can meet any authenticity and confidentiality requirement of our customers".

In 2003, the workshop of "Plastic Industries" only had one installation. As market demand increased, the number of machines and their performances increased. In the last two years, as well as in 2009, the company has received small but constant online orders from countries such as Belgium, France, Holland, Italy, that it has delivered by carriers, just as it does with domestic customers.

Ştefan Cugerian-Raţiu said: "Our product portfolio includes over 130 items and we have over 300 customers, most of them permanent. We expect that 90% of our traditional customers will stick with us, even though their orders are small at the moment, as they depend themselves on the number of events organized by large companies".

The company"s manger said: "The market is fuzzy at the moment, customers can"t tell for sure which way the economy will go. For instance, whereas last year a customers would place a 20,000 piece order, this year, they"ll just place 8,000 piece order, and place another order if they need more. This proves that customers don"t know for sure what their needs are".

Since the compound PVC sheets that the company uses for its products is no longer being produced in Romania, "Plastic Industries" imports it from countries such as Holland, Finland, France or Italy.