European Drinks sees growth in dollars

The business of European Drinks Group owned by the Micula Brothers (Ioan and Viorel), rose by 18%-19% in dollars last year as exports redoubled, Ioan Micula, chairman of the group, said. If calculated in euros, however, the business of the group remained the same, given the 19% ROL depreciation against the single European currency. “We are very pleased with our activity last year. We intend to attain at least 30% growth in dollars this year. Sales have already gone up 42% in January compared with the same month last year, which is much higher than we had expected,” he added. Micula did not reveal last year’s turnover. According to the Finance Ministry, European Drinks, Scandic Distilleries, Transilvania General Import Export and European Food logged $444 million turnover together. Adding the 19% growth in 2003 leads to a nearly $530 million turnover for last year. ZF