September 27 (SeeNews) - Romanian dairy firm Albalact said on Thursday it has opened a new plant, following an investment of more than 10 million euro ($14 million).
The plant, located in Oiejdea, central Romania, has a daily processing capacity of 200,000 litres of millk. It has 11,000 square metres of built-up area, Albalact said in a statement.
Out of the total investment, three million euro went for the plant’s construction. The investment was financed through Albalact's own funds, bank loans and the EU's SAPARD pre-accession programme.
Albalact has moved its entire production to the Oiejdea plant from its previous plant in Alba Iulia, which will be modernised and will start producing cheese by the end of the year. The companys plans to further expand its products portfolio under its medium- and long-term development strategy.
“We have decided to extend our offer with more types of dairy products – yoghurt, milk, cream, cheese," the company’s president, Raul Ciurtin, said in the statement.
Albalact's shares closed up 2.41% at 0.85 lei on Thursday on over-the-counter market RASDAQ.
Albalact (www.albalact.ro), set up in 1990, is located in the Alba county in central Romania. It produces the Albalact, Zuzu and Fulga brands and employs 500.
Its net profit through June jumped 11 times to 6.9 million lei ($2.9 million/2.0 million euro) from 602,727 lei a year earlier, in line with plan.
Albalact competes with French Danone, German Hochland and Romanian LaDorna on the Romanian dairy market that is is expected to grow to one billion euro this year from 800 million euro in 2006. Romania joined the European Union in January.
(1 euro = 3.3808 Romanian lei)