New furniture plant for Lithuania

  • 2005-02-23
  • From wire reports
VILNIUS - Vakaru Medienos Grupe, a privately owned timber and furniture group, has opened a new 11.6 million euro factory in Kazlu Ruda.
The new plant, which will be operated by timber-processing company Giriu Bizonas, was the second joint project with Sweden's IKEA, said Nerijus Tilindis, VMG's CEO.
The company's first joint project was implemented at Klaipedos Mediena, another VMG company, in 2002.

The second project is set to surpass the first and will produce dressers, beds, bedside tables and other household items. Output should comprise some 40 million litas in the first year of operation, and this should hit 120 million 's 150 million litas when the plant reaches full capacity in 2007.

Tilindis pointed out that facility equipment, supplied by Germany's Homag, was the most advanced in the country.

Giriu Bizonas CEO Laimas Devetinas added that the plant was the first in the country to arrange a semi-automatic packaging line. It would employ a workforce of about 220, he added.

Apart from Giriu Bizonas, VMG controls furniture producers Klaipedos Mediena and Baldistra. The group is projecting pretax earnings of 12 million litas for full 2005, a rise of 12.1 percent from the year-earlier figure of 10.7 million litas.

Sales are expected to soar by 23 percent year-on-year to 267.2 million litas.

In 2004, Giriu Bizonas' sales reached 56.3 million litas. This year managers are aiming for a 28.5 percent increase to 77.1 million litas.