Puratos Romania sees turnover double to 20m euros

Puratos company, the domestic unit of the Belgian group with a 80-year record in the industry of bakery and patisserie ingredients, forecasts double turnover this year from 2004, to 20 million euros, This is mainly due to the integration in the group''s business of it''s the bakery ingredients unit of its main distributor, Overseas, which it acquired last year.

"The decision to acquire a unit of Overseas is part of the company''s policy of getting closer to its final customers and getting the possibility of controlling sales people and investing in them," stated Alain Hottlet, general manager with Puratos Romania.

Hottlet specified that the acquisition policy was planned in Brussels. "We must organise everything here and not lose our focus on the core business," Puratos manager also said. He chose not to reveal the value of the deal.

Following the purchase of the bakery ingredients unit of Overseas, the next step to be taken by Puratos is raising production capacities.

To this end, as well as for an efficient integration of all the company''s departments, Puratos has invested in a new plant, in northern Bucharest, a location where both production, as well as management activities, will be transferred.

"We are now too scattered in Bucharest and this is why we''ve decided to bring the entire activity to a single location," Hottlet added.

Offices are built over an area of 1,200 square metres and the plant will take up about 4,000 square metres. "We are not interested in the real estate market, preferring instead to focus on our core business, so we will rent the plant and office spaces from the company that developed the project," Hottlet specified.

He also said that investments targeted at raising production capacities would also sustain export activities. For the time being, the company exports only to the Republic of Moldova.

"We will boost exports, especially to Serbia and Bulgaria, but we will continue to focus on the Romanian market, where we estimate our current market share at 25-30%. We are here for the long term and we want our customers to develop their businesses because this is the only way we can grow, as well," Hottlet stated. He went on to say that one of Puratos'' advantages in terms of competition is linked to its possibility of using the international portfolio of the group.

Having entered the domestic market through production activities in March 1996, the company at present has more than 2,000 direct customers and another 4,000 indirect ones, redistributing products at a local level. Puratos sells in Romania about 150 products included in the category of ingredients for bakeries, patisseries and chocolate shops. dana.ciriperu@zf.ro