Murad brothers set to invest in fried potato production

The owners of Mandy Foods tinned pate brand and of Spring Time fast-food restaurant chain, Lebanese-born Hassan and Ahmed Murad brothers, are set to invest 4m euros to open a fried potato production plant in Roman during next year.

They also finalised, in the first half of this year, a 9m-euro investment in a meat-based convenience food plant in Topoloveni, Arges county.

The production of the two plants will be mainly directed to Spring Time restaurant chain, but also to other companies on the on-premise segment.

"We bought the production space in Roman as it's an area with a very good potato production. Both plants were scheduled for opening this year, but, because of the crisis, the Roman plant will be finalised next year," stated Hassan Murad, manager and shareholder in the group of firms producing Mandy Foods brand. He mentioned the 4m-euro investments would be directed only to equipment acquisition.

Murad brothers have been present in the domestic food industry since 2001 and they currently operate one of the biggest producers of meat, vegetable and pate cans domestically through Mandy Foods.

Among the companies the two brothers own, Glina, the producer of Mandy Foods tinned pate, boasts the biggest turnover. Thus, it ended 2008 with turnover worth 62.6m RON (17m euros). "Mandy Foods sales were constant during this year and even posted a slight increase given that production capacity was boosted last year as the plant of Glina was modernised in the wake of 8m-euro investments. Thus, stocks could finally cover market demand," added the company's manager, also specifying the company this year started exporting tinned pate to Italy, France, Spain and the Czech Republic.

Amid market development and rising production capacity, Murad expects Glina to end this year with an over 25% turnover increase in RON, to 80m RON (around 19m euros).

Moreover, he says he plans to expand the company's portfolio next year, both by launching a new product range and new brands on other price segments.