VILNIUS - Snaige, one of the Baltics' most renowned manufacturers, announced this week that it expected to receive 19.2 million litas (5.5 million euros) in financial support from the EU.
Funds will go toward modernizing the production of household and commercial refrigerators at its Alytus plant, managers said.
"It seems that our project has passed the qualification stage and is currently waiting for approval," Giedrius Barysas, Snaige's board chairman, told the Baltic News Service, adding that approval is soon expected.
Snaige's project, if implemented, will create 23 new jobs, according to the Lithuanian Business Support Agency, which releases the names of all EU funding applicants.
The structural funds will be used to renew Snaige's range of household refrigerators, as well as to expand its production of commercial refrigerators. Barysas said earlier that the project would be a significant technological step forward and would bring the company closer to the market's best-known brands. Modernization, he said, would take about two years to complete.
Snaige's plant in Alytus, in southern Lithuania, currently has four technological lines. One of them 's the commercial line 's lags behind the latest technological standards and needs modernization if the company is to remain competitive.
After project implementation, the facility will have six technological lines.
Snaige earlier reported that it expected to end 2004 with a pretax profit of 31.3 million litas, 26.2 percent higher than in 2003. Yet this is still below the company's profit target of 34 million litas.
The group's consolidated pretax profit is projected to reach 26.4 million litas in 2005.
According to preliminary information, Snaige's 2004 revenues reached 312.7 million litas -surpassing its 300 million litas revenue target. Consolidated revenues, including those of Snaige-controlled companies in Russia and Ukraine, came to 329.9 million litas. The group expects to increase its consolidated revenues to 441 million litas this year.
