Alprom expects 15% growth

Furniture maker Alprom Pitesti estimates to make $22.4 million turnover this year, 15% more than in 2002, economic manager Violeta Anton told Ziarul Financiar. The sales were slow to progress in the first quarter, though, increasing by only 3% or 4%, due to the decline of the Western market, where Alprom exports more than 70% of its total output. Actually, the entire domestic furniture industry has been experiencing a decline for several months now, because of the recession on the Western market, which absorbs over three quarters of the total Romanian furniture output. ZF