The sales in Q4 2012 totalled €503 million, almost one third of the value reached at the yearly level - €1.4 Billion.
Q4 sales were strong. All sectors monitored displayed positive developments quarter on quarter. On a yearly level, however, there were mixed results among the markets monitored within TEMAX® Romania. Positive performance was brought about by Photo, Telecommunications, IT and Consumer Electronics sectors, whereas the domestic appliances, both small and major, suffered and were below last year.
The best performing sector of the entire year is Photo. With almost 11 percent increase year on year the market reached a total of €49 million in 2012. The digital still cameras market is also one of the markets with the highest share of promotional campaigns. The campaigns marked the seasonality of the market bringing solid high extra value in Q2 and Q4 of 2012.
Q4 sales were by almost 25 percent better than last year, totaling 1€16 million. Almost €7 million out of these goes to the D-SLR segment, which grew by double digit rates in Q4 2012.
November sales were strong for digital still cameras; the compacts had actually a better performance in November 2012 than in December 2012; whereas for D-SLRs the two months brought similiar value.
Telecommunications: Smartphones devices ensured the success of the Telco sector
The total value of the mobile phone and smartphone market increased significantly with 24 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012 when compared to the same period of the last year, summing €75 million.
Even if the mobile phone products still dominate the market in volume, they lose ground from month to month. The valuable segment of smartphones has ensured the success of the Telco market with a presence in all important price classes and a wide portfolio of touch screen and > 5MP camera devices. Smartphones revealed mostly at the end of the year due to the Black Friday event and Christmas Season. The entire 2012 showed a plus in value of 9 percent compared to previous year.
Information Technology: Media tablets were the star of the IT sector
In the fourth quarter of 2012 the IT market managed to record an increase of 11 percent compared to the last quarter of 2011, reaching a value of €150 million. The results of the Black Friday event overtook the ones of the traditional Christmas season. The promotions which had the most important impact were the ones for media tablets, followed by peripherals (mice, keyboards and visual cams) and mobile computers. In total, 2012 showed an increase of 3.7 percent compared to 2011.
Consumer Electronics: 2012 - a positive year for Consumer Electronics
In Q4 2012 the sales within the Consumer Electronics sector rose by almost 10 percent, reaching €116 million. This was triggered by the positive development of sales within Panel TV, whereas the rest of the sales within the sector registered negative growth rates. The demand for flat TV’s in December was more or less similar to last December; it was November with Black Friday campaign that brought the extra value. As far as it goes for this category, in the week with Black Friday there were registered sales amounting to 68 percent of an average month, such as October.
All in all the year of 2012 ended on an optimistic note with 5 percent growth compared with last year. The total contribution of this sector to the technical consumer goods market was of €296 million in 2012.
Small Domestic Appliances: Positive developments in Q4 2012
The Small Domestic Appliances sector recorded a 4 percent growth rate in Q4 2012 compared with the same quarter of last year, ending a challenging 2012 with a total yearly value of €106 million. Within the sector, all segments showed positive developments in this quarter comparing with Q4 2011, with the exception of deepfryers, juicers/pressers and bread makers, which significantly dropped sales.
The vacuum cleaner segment is still the most important of the SDA market, showing good performances for bagged and bagless products, while wash and dry models also performed well. Within food preparation category the developments were rather different, products such as hand blenders, kitchen machines showed positive performances, while the others decreased in Q4 2012.
Hot beverages makers continued on an ascending path, showing one of the highest growth rates within the sector, an 18 percent quarter on quarter rise. The increase in sales was of course triggered by the espresso machines segment, with a particularly good performance for full automatic models. Hair care and shavers also saw improvements compared to last year.
Major Domestic Appliances: The last quarter of 2012 showed a recovery
In the last quarter of 2012, the Major Domestic Appliances sector showed, for the first time this year, an increase in sales, 1.6 percent above Q4 2011. Still, the yearly performance is almost 6 percent below the one achieved last year, this means €310 million registered in 2012. As seen in the previous quarters, the developments within the MDA sector are diverse. On one hand there are the small and fast growing markets such as ovens, hobs, dishwashers and tumble dryers, showing growth rates between 20-30 percent in Q4 2012. On the other hand, the large markets, cooling, washing machines and cooking freestanding showed slight decreases.
The built-in products were the main driver of the MDA market, becoming more and more appealing for the consumers and with huge prospects in the coming years. While this category increased by 34 percent quarter on quarter, the freestanding appliance are losing ground (-2 percent). The niche segments such as side by side refrigerators and wash and dry washing machines still remain at no more than 1 percent of the respective market sales.
Office Equipment: The printers and multifunctional devices market - value of the single function printers is growing
The printers and multifunctional devices market continued to be stable in the last quarter of 2012, reaching a value of €10 million and a stagnation of 0.2 percent when compared with the same period of the previous year. Although the inkjet single function products reached positive rates, the ink segment continued to be on a decreasing path. Laser products balanced the sector’s dynamic. Black Friday promotions succeed, especially for inkjet single function devices, followed by laser multifunctional items. 2012 as whole showed a slight decrease of about 1 percent compared to 2011.
The Survey
GfK TEMAX® is an index developed by GfK to track the technical consumer goods markets. The findings are based on surveys carried out on a regular basis by the retail panel of GfK. The retail panel comprises data from over 390,000 retail outlets worldwide. Since February 2009, GfK has also been compiling the GfK TEMAX® index at international level in more than 30 countries. It is the first index that includes all of the markets for technical consumer goods in different countries. All reports and press releases are available at www.gfktemax.com.
