Vel Pitar moves facility south with 20m euros

The Vel Pitar group, which last year posted an over 140 million-euro turnover, says it will invest 20 million euros in the next three years in building a milling and bakery complex where it will relocate its Bucharest production facilities. According to Vel Pitar representatives, the group held by American investment fund Broadhurst has already acquired a plot located south of Bucharest, where the new production facility will be built starting next year. “We are still in the process of obtaining permits for this project. We hope we will have them all ready in the second half of this year,” said George Frincu, chairman of Vel Pitar’s board of directors. The Ramnicu-Valcea-based group currently has a mill and two plants in Bucharest’s Rahova and Berceni districts. Following Romania’s integration into the European Union, all producers holding plants within city limits have to relocate them outside of the city, under an EU environmental directive. This has been one of the reasons prompting producers such as Pepsi, Kandia, Top Gel or Dobrogea Group to invest millions of euros in new production facilities.