Former Friesland head wants to buy dairy plant

Hungary's Sole-Mizo dairy producer, run by the former head of Friesland Romania, Gerbrant de Boer, plans to buy a Romanian dairy plant, with Prodlacta Brasov among targeted companies, according to industry sources that maintain Sole-Mizo has already conducted an audit at the Brasov plant. "I will not comment," was Gerbrant de Boer's answer. However, the Dutch-born executive as early as the start of last year, when the Hungarian producer opened a plant in Romania, stated Sole-Mizo planned to seal some acquisitions or partnerships with Romanian producers and to bolster exports by around 10% in the following years, to 35% of turnover. Sole-Mizo, headquartered in Szeged, Hungary, owns four plants annually processing 300,000 hectolitres of milk and employing around 1,200 people. In 2008, it hit 185m-euro turnover, 50m euros above the 2008 turnover level of Romania's biggest dairy producer, Friesland. However, acquiring the majority stake in Prodlacta, a company with 16m-euro turnover in 2008, 48.8% controlled by the association of employees, will be difficult as a significant stake in Prodlacta is now held by Dairy Industry Of Xanthi "Rodopi", a subsidiary of Tyras Greek group.