Constanta-based sunflower oil maker Argus, one of the largest in Romania, registered 670 billion lei (31 million dollars) in turnover last year, against 583 billion lei (37 million dollars) in 1999, Vasile Leu, Argus SA general manager, told Ziarul Financiar.
"Turnover devaluated last year against the previous year as the price of basic foodstuffs, among which sunflower oil, was not actually inflation-pegged.
The price increase in the basic foodstuffs does not generally keep the pace with power, fuel or transport price. Last year's gross profit was lower than a year before, but its value was almost the same," Vasile Leu said.
Argus operates in the field of raw oily materials processing, raw oil refining and producing edible oil aimed at market distribution, (both bottled and in bulk), refined sunflower oil bottling and trade, and sunflower oil, fat acids and sunflower grist exports.
Sunflower oil and grist sell the best. "Sunflower grist sales stand for about 27-30% of turnover. About 50% of the production is aimed at Italy, England, Turkey and Israel," Leu added.
Argus currently exports raw sunflower oil to Western Europe, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Turkey and the Middle East. "This product is listed on the stock exchanges and our exports are operated when the prices are going up.
These exports have actually decreased since we opened the production at the refinery plant in 1999," said Leu. "We target consumers from all the social categories.
We launched two new products, namely "Sora Soarelui" and "Argus Extra" last year. The former was a hit on the market," said Leu.
Over the last 7 years, the company has invested 10 million dollars in updating and equipment mostly financed with banking credits.
The 2 million-dollar investments planned for this year will aim at the building of a new warehouse over the next two years, Leu stated. Last year, the company opened the updated and retooled refinery, whose production capacity is 150 tonnes daily.
"This investment needed 10 billion lei. The technology is Belgian and allows the plant to comply with ecological protection norms," says Leu.
The 5 million-dollar investment applied in 1997 and 1998 was aimed at equipment updating for the raw oil department, which has increased the procession capacity from 400 tonnes to 480 tonnes daily.
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