How would you describe distribution market in Europe and in Poland? What market trends are visible?

Robert Kierzek: European market can be divided into three areas. The first one is Western Europe, where the market is in stagnation and companies are only able to generate increases through mergers and alliances. The second one is Central and Eastern Europe, where the market is growing, we can observe strong increases, even several percent over the year, and finally there is the third area: Eastern Europe, that is Ukraine, Russia, Moldova or Belarus. These are high-risk markets, where revenues increases are high, but they may at any time be different, not business, e.g. political barriers and even activities directly influencing companies. Of course, this is what is happening on the market, which we call "physical", it is completely different in case of e-commerce, internet-based sales. In order to expand and trade with success on the internet, you need very good tools, which will allow your customer to find easily the things they wish to buy combined with efficient logistics. Inter Cars slowly begins to offer above mentioned. This will allow faster expansion in those markets, where there is no "physical" distribution chain.

What are the directions of Inter Cars expansion on European market?

RK: We are focussing on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe due to their growth potential. In Poland we still generate 70 percent of our revenues, abroad 30 percent. But it is important to remember that if we merge Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania and the other countries of the region into one submarket, then its potential will be bigger from Polish market! This shows natural directions of expansion of Inter Cars, because we can generate at least the same revenues there, that we have generated in Poland. Additionally we can count on revenue from e-commerce in Russia and Germany, we have no "physical" distribution chain there.

Are there any differences between the e-commerce sales and classic sales performed by Inter Cars - to put it in a nutshell - is this for the same customer or are they different groups of customers?

RK: The aim of e-commerce is to support our classic sales. According to our idea of "One Stop Shop" these two ways of selling supplement each other perfectly - this means maximum benefits for our customers. We listen to voices of our branch owners and we also provide the widest range of products and guarantee perfect distribution chain. We are transferring knowledge in training programs and the Young HR programme.

Approximately every three years Inter Cars doubles the revenues. So what is the forecast for 2014?

RK: This year will be a good one. We want to achieve double-digit growth of sales revenues. We are now almost in the middle of the year. Our revenue growth is slightly below 20 percent. In 2Q our growth decreased slightly, but I think that third quarter will bring stable and substantial increases. We shall finish the year with a double-digit growth rate.

source: Puls Biznesu
06-06-2014

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