May 21 (SeeNews) - Italian household appliances manufacturer De'Longhi said on Tuesday its revenues from operations in Romania jumped by 30% year-on-year to 1.22 billion lei ($286 million/ 256 million euro) in 2018.
De'Longhi's employed over 570 last year and reached a total headcount of 2,400 working at its manufacturing plant in Jucu, Cluj county, and domestic commercial office, the company said in a press release.
"In one year, we can produce over 1.4 million fully automated espresso machines, 2.3 million small home appliances for food preparation, and 700,000 capsule espresso machines," De'Longhi Group operations director for Europe, Massimo Paronitti, said.
At the Jucu plant, the company produces fully automated De'Longhi branding machines, Braun mixers, as well as capsule espresso machines for one of its partner companies. De'Longhi Group is the owner of the Kenwood, Braun and De'Longhi brands.
"If we look at fully automated espresso machines and hand mixers market, some 85% of our sales in 2018 consisted of products manufactured in our Jucu unit and we are glad to see that the Romanian public has a special appreciation for locally produced appliances," De'Longhi Romania commercial director, Peter Ferluga, said.
Most of the output of the Romanian plant is exported, with Great Britain, France, Germany or Australia being among the destination markets.
"In addition to having one of the largest factories in the Group and the largest number of employees in Europe, Romania has a great potential to become a very important market for us in terms of sales. (...) Our goal is to significantly increase our local market share for all brands, and we are very confident, because we have some of the best products in each category," Peter Ferluga added.
The company's investments in Romania since 2013 to date amount to over 120 million euro ($134 million).
De'Longhi Group is present in over 40 countries worldwide.
(1 euro=4.7607 lei)