4 February 2018 Ziarul Financiar
The Fulga brand, with a history of 14 years, represents more than 10% of Albalact’s annual sales, the dairy market leader
Albalact, the largest player on the dairy market, according to its turnover reported in 2016, relaunched in the second half of last year the Fulga brand, targeting children, which has brought the sales of the dairy brand back on an upward slope.
“Fulga is the number two brand on the Romanian UHT milk market (…). Its relaunch in September 2017 has already boosted the turnover of this brand by 36%. Thus, it was a good decision with an important impact on the company’s business”, Cristina Miclea, marketing manager at Albalact, a company with a turnover of RON 528 million (EUR 117 million) in 2016 (latest data available), told ZF. The result is reported in accordance with the international reporting standards. Cristina Miclea says the Fulga brand is a double digit percentage (over 10% – editor’s note) of Albalact sales. Thus, according to the ZF calculations, the brand reaches annual sales of more than EUR 10 million. The most important brand in the portfolio of Albalact, a company that has been recently acquired by the French giant Lactalis, is Zuzu, which represents about 30-40% of the company’s sales, according to the latest data. However, Fulga is Albalact’s first brand and the first animated Romanian brand, built around a character, according to the data provided by the company.
Cristina Miclea says that revitalization of Fulga was made because it is an important brand for the company, and its development has been modest in recent years, with a negative impact on turnover, due to the context – the UHT milk market is declining. On the milk desserts market, Albalact competes with players such as Muller, Danone or Dr. Oetker, as well as with the private brands of the supermarket chains.
“14 years after its launch, we decided to revitalize Fulga, because it is an important brand for the company, and its development has been modest in recent years, with a negative impact on turnover, due to the context – the UHT milk market is declining. Thus, because Fulga is a brand for kids, we decided to include it into a new category – baby desserts. In fact, her entry into this category is an older plan of Albalact, but that has only materialized because now there is a favorable context”, Cristina Miclea said. The relaunch of Fulga is also the first important brand-related project done by Lactalis after the purchase of Albalact. Lactalis, the world’s largest dairy producer, has also become the leader of the Romanian market after purchasing Covalact. Lactalis also locally owns the producer of LaDorna dairy products and the producer of Santal juices (Parmalat Romania).
With this re-launch in 2017, which brought a new image and new products to the dairy brand, Albalact also launched a broad communication campaign for this brand. Albalact annually invests around two million euros in marketing, and it invests this money in campaigns to keep current customers and attract new ones, especially young people, according to information previously provided by Cristina Miclea. She says Albalact will continue to develop the Fulga brand.
“We want to support and expand the Fulga brand. We will monitor the progress of its re-launch and we will make further decisions in line with the impact it will have on the company’s business and the market”.