The Romanian furniture market will reach EUR 1,1 billion by 2011, if the 10% growth rate registered between 2002 and 2006 maintains, according to NewsIn.
Presently, the mid-range furniture dominates the Romanian market, but in the near future the market will polarise into lower quality/price and higher quality/price sectors. This fact offers good opportunities for all the players in the furniture market.
Over the period 2002 - 2006, premium furniture registered the highest growth rate due to increasing purchasing power and import growth. Sales of household medium furniture became more contracted around top retailers and increased their share from 52.55% in 2004 to 63.6% in 2006. This is the result of increasing investments in retail chains of Mobexpert, Elvila and Staer. Romanian furniture manufacturers cover about 55% of domestic sales and imports account for 45% of sales.
In 2007, multinational companies will enter the domestic market, which will. Thus, in March 2007, the first Ikea will be opened following an investment of EUR 25 million. This will increase competition and influence local manfacturers, which will follow the trend of "ready-to-assemble" furniture.
According to a market report quoted by NewswIn, the differences between the furniture market in Romania and other EU countries are huge. For household furniture, Romanians spend 10 times less than the average spent by other Europeans.