Steilmann builds $20m plant

Steilmann Group is planning to launch a greenfield investment next year in Sibiu area, namely a fabrics plant worth about 20 million dollars, said Romeo Pomponiu, general manager of Steilmann Romania.

In view of this investment, Steilmann is looking to team up with a leading foreign producer. This way, Steilmann will be able to benefit from the fiscal incentives granted by the Law for boosting direct investment, which was passed by the Government this spring.

The Law is applied for the greenfield investments exceeding one million dollars. The main incentives provide for the deferral of value-added tax payment.

As the investment needed for building the new plant is estimated at 20 million dollars, Steilmann Group will benefit from other fiscal incentives as well, to be directly negotiated with Government representatives. Steilmann official would not reveal the incentives targeted by the company.

“Total investments in our plants exceeded ten million dollars, as we currently hold five factories with more than 12,000 employees,” Pomponiu says.

The five plants that Steilmann owns in Romania are Mondiala (3,000 employees), Craiova (4,000 employees), Sibiu (2,000 employees), Sighet (1,500 employees) and Mangalia (500 employees).

“Our orders also secure the activity of another 20 plants in Romania, therefore the number of involved employees reaches 20,000,” Pomponiu added.

Like other such companies in Romania, most part of Steilmann production is done under the lohn system (more than 90%), also matching the weight of exports.

According to most companies operating in the Romanian light industry, the lohn system will disappear in the medium-term, therefore the Steilmann official feels that “the solution consists in attracting investors in the textile sector and especially in the field of accessories, to increase the added value of Romanian production from the simple lohn to as many components as possible.”

According to Pomponiu, Steilmann has made investments worth more than 1.5 million dollars aimed at developing certain production activities in Sibiu, together with Italian company Mainetti, for the production of coat hangers, and with VKS for cloth control and special treatments.

Steilmann Group has been operating in Romania for more than 30 years, being the largest textile importer during this interval. Steilmann last year posted total turnover worth 1.4 billion Deutsche marks.