Barlinek to Initiate Production in Central Ukraine
Brussels, Belgium, November 15, 2006--The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing a €38.9 million financing package to Barlinek Invest, a wholly owned subsidiary of Barlinek SA, the largest wooden floor board manufacturer in Poland.
The loan will be used to launch a greenfield production facility with an annual capacity of two million square metres of floor board in Vinnytsia, central Ukraine. Part of the loan will be syndicated to commercial banks.
The production facility will consist of softwood/hardwood saw mills, a floorboard production line and a pellet (bio-fuel) production plant.
Barlinek Invest will be offering its products to the Russian and Ukrainian construction material markets, which are currently expanding by around 20 per cent a year.
At present Russia and Ukraine are importing virtually all quality wooden flooring required for this fast-growing market. This project will help Barlinek Invest expand and strengthen its presence in Ukraine and Russia over the next three to four years.
Olivier Descamps, business group director for southern and eastern Europe, says the project follows the EBRD strategy both for Ukraine, to encourage greater foreign direct investment, and for Poland, to promote cross-border expansion in the local private sector. Barlinek SA is also planning to achieve ISO certification in Ukraine and apply the same high-quality control system used in its Polish operations, he added.
The new plant also achieves an important environmental objective: it will produce 20,000 tonnes per annum of clean–burning bio-fuel made from waste from the floorboard production process.
