SOFIA (Bulgaria), March 5 (SeeNews) – Bulgarian bread manufacturer Simid Agro has received an over 14 million euro ($15.6 million) eight-year investment credit to expand its production capacity, lender Societe Generale Expressbank said on Thursday.
Nearly 9.6 million euro of the credit, which was made available to Simid Agro under the JESSICA initiative, were extended by Societe Generale Expressbank and the remainder were provided by the Regional Urban Development Fund, the bank said in a press release.
Simid Agro will use the proceeds from the credit to buy new equipment and to finance the construction of an energy-efficient plant for frozen bakery products, Societe Generale Expressbank added.
The new plant, which will cover an area of 15,000 sq m, will have a capacity for eight production lines, helping the company meet increased demand in Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece, Romania and Serbia, as well as other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The credit will cover the purchase of five production lines.
The new plant will be built on the site of existing company warehouses and workshops. It will create more than 220 jobs.
Simid Agro, set up in 1996, is headquartered in Plovdiv, the second largest city in Bulgaria, where it operates a plant with two production lines.
JESSICA is an initiative of the European Commission developed in co-operation with the European Investment Bank and the Council of Europe Development Bank. It supports sustainable urban development and regeneration through financial engineering mechanisms.
($=0.8949 euro)