June 3 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian cigarette filters maker Yuri Gagarin [BUL:4PX] said that it turned to a net loss of 805,000 levs ($461,000/412,000 euro) in the first quarter of 2019 from a net profit of 2 million levs in the comparable period of last year.
The company's revenue fell to 25.2 million levs in the first three months of the year from 32.6 million levs in the same period of 2018, the cigarette filters producer said in an interim financial statement last week.
The drop in revenue was mainly caused by lower domestic sales, which were partially offset by an increasing number of clients abroad, the company explained.
Total expenses declined to 26.0 million levs in the review period from 30.6 million levs the year before, mainly due to a drop in expenses for materials.
Yuri Gagarin consolidates the results of two wholly-owned subsidiaries - Sofia Print Investment and U. G. Technics.
The group employed an average of 555 people in the first quarter of 2019.
Earlier this year, Yuri Gagarin signed two loan deals with local D Commerce Bank worth a total of 10 million euro. The company took out a 3.5 million euro investment loan for financing the purchase of a cigarette filter production line, as well as a 6.5 million euro working capital loan.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)