RIGA - Latvia's largest publishing company, Preses Nams, has started construction on a new magazine and newspaper printing plant. The company said it planned to invest 6.5 million lats (9.2 million euros) into the project.
Construction, managed by Venceb, is estimated to take one year, with operation set to start in July 2006.
The new plant will be located near the Riga International Airport, where lower production costs will offer the company considerable savings in comparison to its current downtown location.
Preses Nams is one of the largest publishing companies in the Baltic states. Although it only owns a 9.79 percent stake in Media Nams, a publisher of several large newspapers, its parent company, Venstpils Nafta, owns 90.21 percent.
Ventspils Nafta, Latvia's major oil exporter, owns a controlling stake in the printing house.
In 2004 the company had 19.1 million lats in sales, a 2.9 percent increase year-on-year, while profit grew 10.4 percent to 744,400 lats. The company plans to generate a turnover of more than 27 million lats this year.
"The main task for this year is to restructure the company as well as printing production," Board Chairman Uldis Ronis was quoted as saying.
He explained that 2004 in particular had been a year of change and growth. "Last year turnover increased during a complicated market situation affected by dramatic currency-exchange rate fluctuations. However, we also started developing and upgrading production," he said.
In 2003, Preses Nams posted a profit of 684,400 lats, which was a 65 percent decline from 2002, while net turnover went up 2.3 percent to 18.6 million lats.
Mediju Nams is publisher of Neatkariga Rita Avize Latvijai and Rigas Balss dailies, Vakara Avize Vakara Zinas tabloid and Sporta Avize sports paper. It ended last year with a loss of 1.1 million lats.
