Cisco Systems, the international network technology company, announced it would extend operations in the Baltic countries and establish subsidiaries in the Baltic states. The company said that it forecast growth in sales by 30 percent on the Baltic market and wanted to double sales in three years. "Cisco sees the Baltic countries as a market with very high potential and the company has adopted expansion in the technologically developed new member countries of the European Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as one of the priorities of its European operations," Baltic manager Janne Jarvenpaa said. Cisco Systems has nearly 40,000 employees; its 2005 sales amounted to $24.8 billion.
Snaige, a refrigerator producer, is set to buy 100 percent of Russia's Liga Servis, a trade company that specializes in automotive parts. The company's board voted for the purchase of the company on Jan. 20, Snaige informed the stock exchange. Snaige projected pretax earnings of 22.7 million litas for 2005, a rise of 23.4 percent over 2004. It saw consolidated sales rise to 26.8 percent, year-on-year, to 376.6 million litas.
Toyota Baltic, the official Baltic importer of Toyota and Lexus cars, increased its sales 41 percent last year, the fastest growth in Europe. Toyota Baltic 2005 sales in Latvia soared 52 percent, while those in Estonia increased 36 percent and in Lithuania 34 percent. The company said that Toyota and Lexus' share of the Baltic market had grown to 11.9 percent last year, including 12.9 percent growth in Latvia, 12.6 percent growth in Estonia and 9.2 percent growth in Lithuania.
The recent cold spell has not disrupted operations in the ice-free port of Klaipeda. On the contrary, the port is likely to get more busy if the cold brings neighboring ports to a standstill. Port companies in Klaipeda, the northernmost ice-free port in the Eastern Baltic Sea region, are looking at weather forecasts in the hope that cold will force cargo forwarders to divert some of their cargoes to the port. If the cold spell continues, port authorities are confident that this will occur.
