Austrians buy IKEA's plant in Siret

Holzindustrie Schweighofer Austrian group, with investments worth over 200 million euros in the local wood industry, last month acquired IKEA’s former plant in Siret (Suceava). The value of the transaction was not revealed. The plant is now the third production facility Holzindustrie operates on the Romanian market, after the ones in Sebes (Alba county) and Radauti (Suceava county), and will manufacture solid wood panels. IKEA, which held the plant in Siret via Swedwood, the group’s manufacturing division, shut down the facility in August last year, a decision it justified by the increase by as much as 70% in raw material costs over the last few years. The Austrian group was one of the suppliers of the Swedwood plant. Swedwood representatives were at the time considering the sale of the 5.2-hectare facility to a private investor. IKEA’s investment in Romania amounted to 12 million euros and was completed in 1999. “The Swedwood production facility matches perfectly our new sawmill plant in Radauti, located only 12 kilometres away from the Siret plant,” said Gerald Schweighofer, owner of Holzindustrie Schweighofer.