April 28 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian bottle cap manufacturer Herti [BUL:HTV] said on Thursday that its non-consolidated net profit soared to 1.3 million levs ($0.7 million/0.66 million euro) in the first quarter of 2022 from 273,000 levs in the same period of last year.
In the January-March period, Herti's revenue grew to 23.1 million levs from 11.8 million levs in the first quarter of 2021, the bottle cap maker said in an interim financial statement.
The company's operating expenses also almost doubled, to 21.7 million levs in the review period from 11.5 million levs a year earlier, mostly due to a 105% surge in expenses for materials, which reached 14.15 million levs due to higher prices of aluminium and energy. Personnel expenses also nearly doubled, to just over 4 million levs.
As the ongoing war in Ukraine poses a risk to gas suppliers, the company's management is working on an option for an alternative supply of propane butane to prevent disruption of the production process, Herti added.
Earlier this year, Herti's board approved a request to apply for a 800,000 euro investment loan from DSK Bank, which will be deployed to purchase new production equipment.
Established in 1993, Herti produces over 1 billion bottle caps per year.
Shares in Herti last traded at 1.36 levs apiece on the BaSE market of the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, bourse data showed.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)