Alprom seeks strategic investor

Furniture producer Alprom Slatina is preparing a strategy for development of a retail chain and plans to attract a strategic foreign investor to invest over 10 million euros in fibreboard production. “Until now we have mainly focused on exports. We have increased exports by up to 80%, but it is clear that the domestic market is becoming increasingly interested. We are now preparing a development strategy for the commercial operations, because this will obviously provide the highest yields,” said Violeta Anton, Alprom’s chief financial officer. Alprom currently has stores in Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj, Constanta and Pitesti. Last year the company saw turnover reach around 20 million euros, and expects to see this rise by 10-15% this year. “So far we have exceeded our turnover target by about 5%. Profit, on the other hand, has gone up nearly 30% compared with last year,” Anton added. The Finance Ministry website shows Alprom made net profits of some 1.2 million euros in 2003. ZF