New 25 Mln Euro Factory To Help Bulgarian Welding Equipment Maker Sparky Raise Exports by One-Sixth

"Our current exports are some 3.0 million euro a month [...] and with the start of the new unit we expect exports to reach 3.5 million euro. This will be the minimum - the more, the better," Sparky's executive director Chavdar Plaharov told SeeNews.

Sparky's existing plant, located in the Danube city of Ruse, will be closed after the launch of the new factory, which should be built within three years also in Ruse. The company, which also produces farm machines, sells its products in France, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and the U.S.

"We are now to buy land where to build the factory and depending on our client's orders and land available, we can consider expanding it at a later stage," said Plaharov.

"Thanks to the new facility, we will enlarge our products portfolio and increase capacity. Now we are making separate components and if things are developing well, we'll be able to make finished equipment."

Sparky, which is 90.2%-owned by local Sparky Group, listed on the Sofia bourse earlier this year despite shaky international financial environment. It has forecast a 70% rise in net profit to 14.7 million levs in 2010 compared with 2007, as sales are expected to almost double over that period.

"We are now in talks with our clients to see whether they will cut their orders, we don't know to what extent they had been affected by the crisis," Plaharov said.

No share in Sparky was traded until 0900 GMT on Thursday. Its shares last traded on September 17, closing at 10.4 levs, down 9.6% lower from the previous close on September 4, in a volume of just five shares.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)