Kastamonu planning to end Kronospan domination

Kastamonu Entegre, Turkey’s leading wood company, is planning to invest over 100 million euros in factories for the manufacturing of materials for the Romanian furniture industry, said Dogan Gures, general manager of the Reghin-based company Prolemn, which is owned by Kastamonu.

“Our projects include an MDF plant in Reghin and one in a harbour-city – Constanta, Braila or Galati – both with a daily capacity of 1,000 square metres. At the same time, we want to invest in the production of laminated boards, plywood and adhesives,” said Gures.

This is likely to make Kastamonu the second biggest supplier of materials to the Romanian furniture industry after Kronospan, which is currently the only major producer of MDF and laminated boards.

“Our company has a real track record in breaking monopolies. We have done this in the door fronts industry, which is dominated by US firms,” Gures said.

The Turkish firm is part of Hayar Holding, the largest forest exploitation group in Turkey, and entered the Romanian market in 1998 after taking over the Prolemn factory in Reghin from the Romanian state.  Prolemn produces door fronts for export as well as semi-finished doors, plywood for use in construction, sheet boards and large-scale panels. Last year they had a turnover of 28 million euros, compared with 18 million euros in 2003. After taking the exchange rate fluctuations into account, the company expects this year’s turnover to exceed 31 million euros.

“Romania is a strategic location for our company due the advantages conferred by its location and raw material resources. From Reghin we export to Ukraine, Russia, Bosnia and the Middle East,” explained Gures.

He says that since Kastamonu took over Prolemn it has invested almost 50 million euros in the modernisation and expansion of its platform in Reghin, although that is less than pledged to the Privatisation Authority.

“We pledged to invest 75 million euros after the takeover of the Reghin plant, but due to some difficulties we invested less than this. For this reason we’ll have to pay penalties over 30 million dollars, which we find quite unsatisfactory and this is making us think twice about continuing to invest in Romania,” said Gures.

Last year, Prolemn began investing 15 million euros in a new door fronts factory on the Reghin platform. Reghin currently employs 1,200 people, a number which is set to rise to 2,000 after the opening of the new plant.
transilvania@zf.ro ; georgiana.stavarache@zf.ro