RIGA - International Greetings, a British concern, has put off the planned construction of a major gift-packaging products plant in Liepaja.
The administration of the Liepaja Special Economic Zone said that IG Baltic, the concern's Latvian subsidiary, wanted to postpone its plans for one year since it intends to open a plant in China. The British company has decided to concentrate investments there and postpone investment plans in the Baltics, Liepaja SEZ officials said.
IG Baltic officials did reiterate, however, that it was still prepared to invest in the construction of the new plant in Liepaja's famous Karosta suburb, representatives of the Liepaja City Council said.
This year, IG Baltic is planning to invest 4.7 million lats (6.7 million euros) in the new plant, with 2.5 million lats in investments planned for 2007 and 6.6 million lats for 2008.
For the time being, the company has installed its production lines in the premises of Latvia's Lauma lingerie maker.
International Greetings PLC, founded in 1979, is one of the world's largest companies in the gift packaging industry. IG launched operations in Liepaja in 2005 by setting up three separate enterprises 's IG Latvia, IG Baltic and Balt IG. IG Latvia makes greeting cards, while Balt IG produces ribbons and tassels for gift packaging and IG Baltic manages real estate.
International Greetings closed the fiscal year ending on March 31 with turnover rising 37 percent to 196.6 million pounds. The company said it succeeded in boosting profit mainly thanks to moving production from England to Latvia.
