Speciality meats producer Cris-Tim logged 79 million euro turnover last year, up nearly 10% from the previous year, when it posted 72 million euros.
The company, which specialises in salamis and other foods, has recently entered the dry salami market and is to begin an about one million euro investment this year to build a pressed cheese factory.
"We estimate 20% growth for 2004, albeit the problem the major players in the meat industry are facing is that more than 50% of those on this segment make and sell their products on the black market. This does not allow us to boost volumes and have a profit margin," Radu Timis, Cris-Tim's chairman and main shareholder told Ziarul Financiar.
To keep in business, he says, Cris-Tim chose to maintain prices even though investments went up.
"We invested in a 500,000 euro chemical testing lab, and these costs make up about 10% of a kilo of speciality meat," Timis says.
Unofficial estimates show the meat and meat products market amounted to 130,000 tonnes last year and was worth 260 million euros, if calculated at an average 2,000 euro price per tonne.
Cris-Tim has recently launched a dry salami line. The company accounts for some 5% of this market, Timis reckons, yet aims to come to 10%-15% by the end of the year. "Our estimates show Cris-Tim to have an about 16-18% market share, slightly up due to new product releases this year," Timis says.
Cris-Tim invested 5 million euros last year, especially in buying a cattle farm in Boldesti-Scaeni, Prahova County, which numbers 100 Montbeliarde milk cows. The farm has a sound system installed that plays music for the cows, mostly classical titles, throughout the entire day.
"The most recent studies in this regard have demonstrated that music boosts cattle productivity. Whereas a cow raised in the usual manner yields up to 20 litres of milk a day, one that plays Bach, Vivaldi or Mozart may yield as much as 40 litres," Timis says.
The farm in Scaeni also has 800 hectares of land where cereals to feed the cattle are grown. The farm has fishponds and chicken raising space, as well, and will soon be populated with 20,000 swine to provide the raw material for the meat products, which is almost completely imported at the moment. "We want our farm to cover approximately 20% of the raw material. Romanian producers cannot supply quality products unfortunately, for which reason they cover only 35% of Romania's consumption needs," Timis says.
stelian.negrea@zf.ro
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