Heidi sees sales up 15%

Chocolate producer Heidi Chocolats Suisse Romania estimates its sales to go up 15% this year, and reach approximately $5.5 million. “We have already risen 10% in the first 11 months of the year compared with the same time last year and the year is not over yet. As you are well aware, the upcoming period is good for chocolate sales,” Massimo Palumbo, Heidi’s marketing manager said. Heidi makes 1,000 tonnes of chocolate a year and plans to invest in a new productive line in 2004, though Palumbo says the exact amount of the investment has not been set yet. Such an investment is usually worth about half a million dollars. “The product is already available on the Romanian market, it is no longer something new, only the productive system will be,” Palumbo stated. Heidi has invested seven million dollars since entering the Romanian market in 1994. The company has a factory in Pantelimon, which takes up 2,500 sqm and a powder milk facility in Timis County, the daily processing capacity of which reaches 75,000 litres. Heidi launched a new range of chocolate tablets, “Intense”, which come in three flavours, early this week, but the investment was minimal, Palumbo explains. ZF