September 19 (SeeNews) - Belgian-based contract electronics manufacturer EPIQ plans to open a 5.0 million euro ($7.0 million) plant in Bulgaria, its third in the country, in October to meet rising demand for its products, a company official said on Wednesday.
“We started building the plant in March this year. It will be in Botevgrad, next to the second plant we already have there,” EPIQ investor relations director Johan Cappelle told SeeNews.
EPIQ's both Bulgarian plants are located in the town of Botevgrad, some 80 kilometres east of the capital Sofia. Besides Bulgaria, EPIQ has production plants in Belgium, France, Germany, the Czech Republic and Mexico.
“Bulgaria is a country which is now having a lot of success with our customers and we enjoy also the good intellectual knowledge in Sofia and Botevgrad,” Cappelle said, adding low labour costs were also among the reasons to invest in Bulgaria.
The average monthly salary in the country, which joined the European Union in January, was around 400 levs ($286/205 euro) in the second quarter of this year, according to latest data.
EPIQ’s 2006 revenue rose 25% to 152.4 million euro, while its net profit was 2.7 million euro, up from 1.7 million euro for 2005.
(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)