Milk and milk products company Covalact Sfantu-Gheorghe, whose turnover reaches 10 million euros, has probed the Austrian market in search of a dairy factory but settled for buying machinery in the end.
"At first we planned to buy a factory in Austria that closed down and should have been dismantled and brought in Romania. What we saw there was not what we were looking for. The large factories about to close were too large for us and the small ones did not have such a good technology," Covalact's general manager Ioan Balan said.
He was in Austria last week where he visited a number of production facilities. "We would have liked a factory with more than 50,000 litres in capacity, which should match our production capacity and be affordable," Balan specified.
Covalact's daily processing capacity amounts to 150,000 litres. The raw material is collected from some 7000 producers in Covasna, Harghita and Brasov County.
Balan added the acquisition of independent equipment was chosen in the end in order to boost the production capacity and that further acquisitions were currently discussed with Austrian partners.
"The machinery is worth 300,000 euros, while the costs entailed by buying vehicles total 400,000 euros," Balan said.
The investment programme estimated for this year amounts to about one million euros, chiefly aimed at buying production equipment and vehicles. The company is also considering allocation of significant funding to boost the production capacity.
Covalact completed a 1.5 million euro investment along with Dutch Campina Group last year. Both parties contributed half a million euros each, while the rest came in form of a subsidy from the Dutch State.
The company opened a yoghurt production line in August 2003 therefore expanding its entire productive capacity by 15%. stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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