Italsofa Romania, which is part of the Natuzzi group, one of the world''s biggest producers of sofas, has begun expanding its production capacity after its plant in Baia Mare reached maximum capacity. The company will not build a new factory, but will concentrate instead on expanding its existing facility in Baia Mare.
"We''ve given up on the idea of building a new plant for the time being, and we''ve decided to expand our existing capacities instead. If there are no real problems then we will finish the works for the new production section by the end of this year, or early 2006 at the latest," Francesco Stasolla, the company''s deputy chairman, told ZF Transilvania. He was unwilling to specify the total value of the investment at the site.
The Italian group already has a factory in Baia Mare on a 65,000 square metres plot of land. The company actually owns a much larger plot (200,000 square metres), and last year it announced it had purchased 110,000 square metres on which it was planning to build a new factory.
To date the Italian group has invested around 35 million euros in its Baia Mare plant. Natuzzi only manufactures leather and micro-fibre sofas in Baia Mare, of which 99% are exported, mainly to the European Union.
"So far we have only one customer on the Romanian market, the Linea Mex company. Though the Romanian market has potential, the high level of exports will be maintained over the following period because Romanians'' purchasing power is still very low," added Francesco Stasolla.
During the first six months of this year the company made sales of 21 million euros, company representatives say, a similar level to that seen in the corresponding period of last year.
In 2004 the Natuzzi group reported turnover of 49 million euros for Romania, 100% more than in 2003.
"This year we are expecting even higher turnover, since we have continually been raising our production capacity. However, due to being listed on the New York Stock Exchange, we cannot make any clear estimates. Despite not seeing any significant growth in the first six months of the year against the same period of last year, we are still upbeat because the second half of the year has always been better than the first in our field," Stasolla said.
Natuzzi-Italsofa last year made profits of 9 million euros, twice the level of 2003.
Natuzzi products are manufactured from raw materials that are of 85% Romanian origin, such as those from the Kronospan, Euroform and RomSilva companies. The rest of the materials are imported from Italy, where one of their main suppliers is Gruppo Frati.
Natuzzi has 25 factories, of which 21 are in Italy, two are in Brazil, and there are one each in China and Romania.
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