Cotnari spends 4m euros on retooling

Winemaker Cotnari, one of the leading four players on the market has announced it will run an investment programme worth more than 4 million euros next year in order to retool its wine processing and bottling lines, as part of a SAPARD-funded project. “It is quite difficult to invest 4 million euros by yourself in this industry, so we decided to apply for SAPARD funding, particularly because accessing such funds has become easier lately,” Laurentiu Anghel, Cotnari”s marketing manager said. Half of the value of the project will be self-funded by the company. Anghel explained that the investment would allow both increasing the production capacity and complying with European Union standards. Cotnari”s officials added that the retooling project that will be run in 2006 is the largest investment made in the last few years. The total value of investments made this year stands at 1.5 million euros, and has mainly targeted the replanting of grapevines, the acquisition of machinery and equipment, as well as infrastructure projects. Cotnari posted 24.2 million RON (6.6 million euros) turnover in the first half, an increase of 57% on the same period in 2004. It expects to see full-year turnover of 50 million RON (13.6 million euros) and profits of 3.2 million RON (870,000 euros), compared to 2.6 million RON at the end of last year. ZF