Central Latvia gets breakfast food factory

  • 2000-06-01
OLAINE, Latvia (BNS) - SIA Noi Baltija on May 26 opened a new sweets production facility in the central Latvian town of Olaine.

The new facility designed to produce jelly sweetmeat, cornflakes in chocolate icing and different kinds of syrup-filled bonbons was set up in cooperation with an Icelandic company Noi Sirius, the leading sweets maker in Iceland with 70 years of experience in the field and 35 percent share at its home market.

Noi Baltija's goal is to get a big part of the Latvian candy market under its control and to become one of the leading sweetmakers in the country as well as to export products to the Nordic states.

Half of Noi Baltija capital is owned by Noi Sirius and the remainder by Nordic Industries Ltd. The two companies also own capital in the firm SIA Nordic Food, which is the owner of the controlling stake in the Latvian leading candy maker Staburadze.

Up to now $850,000 have been invested in Noi Baltija, but plans are to increase the amount of investment in the future, said company representatives.

Noi Baltija President Uldis Vaivars told reporters the company could earn back the investment in setting up the company in five to six years. The company this year is planning a turnover of 500,000 lats ($818,330).

Production will get under way in a month and a half and the initial aim of the company is to conquer the Latvian market and later export products to Estonia and Lithuania and possibly to Iceland.