Egger: Best case scenario has sales reach pre-crisis levels

Austria’s wood industry producer Egger, which owns a plant in
Radauti (Suceava), says it currently exports 50% of production,
despite initial plans putting exports at 60%. “The crisis changed
initial plans. We now export 50% of production and we sell the rest
on the Romanian market,” said Mihai Sandru, commercial manager of
Egger. The plant last year derived 66m-euro turnover, in the first
year in business on the Romanian market. The plant started
operations last January and it was officially opened in autumn. “We
do not expect a sales increase. According to the best case scenario
for 2009, sales will be similar with the level registered before
the crisis, but this is a hard-to-attain goal,” Sandru also said.
Regarding 2010, he said it was “only the major European markets
that shows signs of a rebound”, which will have a positive impact
over the business, but he did not provide a projection about
Egger’s turnover. The plant took 210m-euro investments and at the
launch moment Egger representatives estimated sales could reach
150m euros in 2010. In early 2009 the company announced it would
invest over 53m euros to build a biomass-based power station and an
adhesive production installation. Around 85% of Egger products are
for the home décor industry and 15% for the constructions
sector.