Eybl Automotive sees business growth after merger

Eybl Automotive Romania, a division of Austrian-based Eybl International AG, a car parts supplier for the automotive industry, forecasts turnover worth around 15 million euros for 2005, 15% higher year-on-year.

The company”s officials account for this evolution by the higher volume of orders from traditional customers, but also by the arrival of new customers, such as Peugeot, on the car upholstery segment, and Toyota, on the steering wheels segment.

Until the beginning of this year, the Austrian group had been present on the Romanian market through two companies, Eybl Textile (the upholstery unit) and Eybl Automotive Components (the unit covering steering wheels in leather).

This February, Eybl Textile absorbed Eybl Automotive Components, and the newly-created entity functioned under the name of Eybl Textile until early November, when it became Eybl Automotive Romania.

The general headquarters of the company is in Deta, Timis county, where two plants are operating: a plant producing leather and textile upholstery and a factory specialising in leather-coated steering wheels. In September, Eybl completed a 2.5 million-euro investment in the construction of a new production unit in Deta. The project was launched in March and is scheduled to create 500 new jobs.

“These investments are part of our policy to expand the production capacity of Eybl,” Dacian Negrea, general manager of Eybl Automotive Romania, told ZF Transilvania. He mentioned that the company would soon open a new plant in Caras-Severin, in the wake of investments worth about three million euros.

“The plant of Caras-Severin will exclusively specialise in the production of clothing,” Negrea explained.

In 2004, the production capacity of Eybl Automotive was some 20% higher than in 2003, and, for this year, company officials foresee 30% growth, mainly due to the completion of the Deta production unit.

Eybl Automotive products are exported to European Union countries.

“The volume of exports has not been hit by the decline of the single European currency. On the contrary, it is even higher when calculated in euros. At the same time, the operating income margin shrank following the euro depreciation, since we only sell our products abroad,” Negrea stated.

alina.pahonci@zf.ro