January 20 (SeeNews) - Amer Sports Bulgaria will open a new local factory later this year, managing director Ivailo Petrov confirmed to SeeNews on Friday.
The company will invest 11 million euro ($11.9 million) of its own funds in the facility, which will be based in Asenovgrad, near Plovdiv, Petrov told SeeNews.
Amer Sports Bulgaria, a direct subsidiary of Austria's Amer Sports Holding GmbH, has several production facilities in the town of Chepelare, near the ski resort of Pamporovo. The company, which makes ski equipment under the Atomic and Salomon brands, produced 356,976 pairs of alpine skis and 271,369 pairs of cross-country skis in 2021, according to its most recent annual report filed with the commercial register.
Amer Sports Bulgaria's sales grew 7% year-on-year to 71.8 million levs ($39.7 million/36.7 million euro) in 2021. Net profit decreased to 2.2 million levs from 3.6 million levs over the same period due to higher expenses.
Bulgaria has the third-largest share of ski and snowboard exports in the EU in 2021, marginally behind that of France, with Austria the top exporter, Eurostat said earlier this month.
($ = 0.9244 euro)