The back to school  months July to September brought about a 2 percent increase in sales volumes for writing tools this year as compared to last year's figures for the same period, according to the GfK Retail and Technology survey covering this market segment.  The study considered writing tools sold via hypermarkets and cash&carry stores and its findings reveal a 3 percent increase  in the value of this type of sales, namely EUR 2.6 million (RON 12 million).

A sales peak, both in volume and value, was recorded in the second week of September 2012 when almost 2 million items put EUR 0.51 million (around RON 2.3 million) into manufacturers' pockets.

“The increase in sales values is not to at all negligible as it points to the market being more profitable than last year,” said Ileana Tîlvan, Client Service GfK Retail and Technology Romania. “This is good news for writing tool manufacturers, who can now see how efficient their marketing and promotion activities have been”, she added.

The market structure, expressed in volumes, maintains last year's breakdown into two main categories of items sold: writing tools stand somewhere at 50 percent, while coloring instruments take up 44 percent.

Purchase preference statistics indicate that wax pens were the most popular items this year, with a 35 percent increase in sales volumes, which translates as a 40 percent jump in sales value. Colored crayons came in second, with a 9 percent rise in sales volume and a 19 percent higher sales value.

Ioana Jelea, ioana.jelea@romania-insider.com 

(photo source: sxc.hu)