Although a relative newcomer to the Romanian market, Bunge Ltd., the American food industry giant, has already made two acquisitions in Romania and is now announcing plans for strong expansion.
In its first public announcement since having established a business in Romania, Bunge disclosed a $10 million investment scheduled for the next five years.
The investment will be mainly aimed at modernising the group's three Romanian-based plants and increasing the production capacity by some 15-20 percent.
Bunge Romania holds three factories: Unirea Iasi (which it bought together with the international operations of Dutch company Cereol BV, then the Romanian company's main shareholder), Muntenia Bucharest and InterOil Oradea, which it took over last year.
"Cereol saw an opportunity to expand in Central and Eastern Europe, in fact everyone saw this opportunity, so that, in 2002, Bunge bought Cereol," said Bunge Europe president and CEO Carl Hausmann.
The two plants, Muntenia and Interoil were bought very fast, through a public offering, only several months after the company's entrance in Romania. Bunge paid $5.4 million for the two factories that it bought from the majority shareholder, Prefabricate Vest.
"When we bought them, none of the two plants was operational and now they are both working. Moreover, we included the oil brands of the two plants in our distribution system," said general manager Robert Arsene. "We have cut costs and we aim to meet the market demands at all times," he added.
Bunge had taken over the Floriol and Unisol brands from Cereol and then added Muntenia and Horea, after acquiring the two plants. This year, the company launched a new brand - Raza Soarelui (Sunbeam).
"We want to be sure we have the entire market covered. We have five brands, and, while it is true that there are not so many brands in Romania as in other countries, the consumers are the ones who decide whether there are too many brands or not. At any rate, we will keep adding new brands to our portfolio," Carl Hausmann added. According to the Bunge Europe President and CEO, the company is only considering expansion in the edible oil industry for the time being.
"We are not planning any other acquisitions for the near future, but we will look into every opportunity," Arsene added.
The Americans intend to raise turnover from $65 million (according to estimates for this year) to $100 million in the next three years. Bunge also aims to get 45-47% of the edible oil market, which is rather fragmented at this point. claudia.covaci@zf.ro
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