BodyBalt, the operator of The Body Shop chain in Latvia, generated 754,800 lats (1.07 million euros) in sales during the first nine months this year, which is a 65 percent rise from the same period last year. Body Shop regional manager Ieva Gailuma said that the turnover had increased because of improvements in customer service and new products. Their fifth, and final, store has been opened in Riga. BodyBalt predicted annual turnover to grow by 50 percent. The company was founded in May 2004.
Estonia's Parnu Linavabrik (Parnu Flax Mill) will lay off 126 of its 523 employees. The average age of the workers to be laid off is 45, most of them women, the Unemployment Insurance Fund reported. The mass layoff in Parnu Linavabrik is the biggest this year, both in terms of employees and the compensation paid to them. Workers laid off from the flax mill will get a total compensation of nearly 1.3 million kroons (83,000 euros). As a result, each person will receive an average compensation of 10,000 kroons from the Insurance Fund. The company mentioned the effect of the vigorously growing Chinese flax industry to operations of the company. In 2004, Parnu Linavabrik employed an average of 562 people.
The Swedish industrial group Trelleborg aims to transfer the production of recently acquired Hunter Diving, a company based in Dumfries, Scotland, to its plant in Taurage, Southwest Lithuania, within a few months. Hunter, which was privately owned, manufactures diving suits for professional divers. Trella has annual sales of 23 million crowns (2.5 million euros) and 60 employees at a production facility located in Taurage, southwestern Lithuania. Svytis, established in 1993, has provided manufacturing and sewn protective suits for Trelleborg Protective Products since 2003. The Trelleborg group comprises the divisions Trelleborg Automotive, Trelleborg Wheel Systems, Trelleborg Engineered Systems, Trelleborg Building Systems and Trelleborg Sealing Solutions.
