Agro Company targets 36m-euro turnover

Agro Company, the Deva-based meat product manufacturer, expects to derive a turnover worth 36m euros this year, up 24% against 2006, when the firm registered sales topping 29m euros. One of the main factors behind higher sales was consumers’ renewed interest in the traditional meat products.
“On the one hand, this year’s positive financial results are based on investment programmes we’ve carried out so far that were intended to boost production capacities. On the other hand, the market is seeing demand change gradually, with consumers increasingly shifting their interest towards traditional Romanian products and specialties,” Aurel Muresan, Agro Company’s general manager, told ZF Transilvania.
In 2006, the company revealed an investment project using SAPARD funds. Worth 2.8m euros, the investment targets the modernising of the Deva charcuterie plant, with the planned acquisitions and construction work scheduled to be finished later this year. A similar investment project, worth 1.7m euros, was started in the second half of 2006. In this case, the project is aimed at the development and modernisation of the charcuterie plant in Nojag, Hunedoara county.
“We plan to complete the works for the Nojag charcuterie plant by early 2008, and intend to start new investments for modernising the slaughterhouse located nearby in order to reach a capacity of 30 tonnes of meat per day,” says Muresan.
At present, the company produces between 35 and 45 tonnes of meat and meat products per day. However, according to Agro Company officials, for the following period the company plans to reach a volume of 80-100 tonnes per day. Agro Company not only sells its products through its own network of stores, which include Deva, Simeria, Brad, Hateg, Hunedoara, Beclean, Certej, but also through distribution networks in Transylvania. The company owns 14 outlets throughout the major cities of Romania.
“For the future, our company intends to begin an expansion and sales increase programme, with our strategies including the signing of contracts with major cash & carry chains, and the opening of new outlets,” Aurel Muresan also stated.
Agro Company was created in 1992, when it began operating on the meat production and processing market. The share capital of the company currently stands at 0.57m euros, with its main shareholder, Gergely P. Vilhem, accounting for a stake of 99.99%.