Jimbolia's yellow clay brings Germans back after more than a century

The yellow and blue clay around Jimbolia town has been drawing businessmen ever since 1876. This is when a German citizen, whom people remember only by the name of Bohn, built a ceramics plant, now ruined. The Germans with Keller Company are now planning to breathe new life into the ceramics production in Jimbolia after 125 years.

Keller HCW representatives are planning to team up with Romania-based Ceram 2000 and invest more than 64 million euros to build three factories in Jimbolia.

“We chose to invest here, mainly due to the clay exploitation that will cut production costs a great deal, but also due to the fact that the town is located by the border, which makes it very easy for us to export,” said Laurent Averback, the commercial manager of the German company.

The project to begin this October and end in March 2004 will be carried out in three stages. The building of the first factory to produce some 25 million pieces of ceramic tile a year is scheduled to start in October and to be completed by January 2003. At the same time, a second factory, producing flagstones, scheduled to open in March 2003, is being built.

The third part of the investment programme stipulates that the third factory specialised in making ceramic blocks will be completed in March 2004.

To make this project happen, the two parties involved will create a joint venture, of which 85% will be held by the German concern, while the rest will be held by the Romanian party. Keller will provide the necessary construction materials and act as the contractor of this business.

In order for the investment to be run, 23 hectares of land were leased from the Town Hall, with productive halls scheduled to be built over 8 hectares and 15 hectares to be used for the clay exploitation.

“This investment will create new jobs and therefore unemployment in the area will decrease,” says Jimbolia mayor Kaba Gabor.

Keller HCW Ibbenburen -Lagganbeck’s ceramics division, established in 1894 makes flagstones, faA§ade bricks, common bricks, tile and ornamental ceilings. The German company also has a division of measurement and control systems and one of industrial automation systems. In December 2000, Keller was taken over by France-based Ceric Group, a ceramics maker, as well.

The Jimbolia-made ceramics used to be famous in the whole country for a long time. Its name, however, has faded into economic oblivion over the past few years. The factory producing ceramics in Jimbolia used to take up 42 hectares. Its history began in 1876, but stopped in 1996.