Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
"Chumak" stopped production in Skadovsk
"Chumak" company, one of the largest producers of ketchup and mayonnaise in Ukraine scaled down production on Skadovskiy cannery, owned by the company, Economic News informs.
The enterprise representatives told that, as of today, the production is stopped and equipment is transported to "Chumak" plant in Kakhovka. "There was jobs cut, the production won't be resumed. There is an idea to reorient our plant into terminal point", - the plant representatives informed. "Most probably, the owners will sell the plant".
Fedor Logvinenko, the PR manager of the company, informed that the need in production facility in Skadovsk no longer exists, because the investment project is finished on Kakhovskiy cannery. The company invested $16 mln. to the reconstruction of the plant of the total square 22,000 sq. m. As a result, the enterprise capacity to process tomatoes has increased fivefold up to 1,250 tons/day. "The production will be concentrated in the facility of Kakhovka, and a terminal point will be organized in Skadovsk", F. Logvinenko said. He did not mention if the company negotiates the sales of this plant.
The stopped production in Skadovsk is not the first example of the company's course towards the optimization of asset structure. In spring "Chumak" sold the share package (35.9%) of "Yug" Opened JSC which specializes on the lease of warehouses for food products and vegetable storages. The company substantiated this act by the completed construction of the own plant. There is no need for the additional production also because of a high level of inflation which may support the demand decline for "Shumak" products, because they are not in the list of essential commodities. In such circumstances the sales of Skadovskiy cannery would be a logical step; however, the experts doubt that the plant will get lots of buyers. In particular, the prospective buyers may be daunted by the deficit of qualified labor resources in Skadovsk. Also, they will have to compete with "Chumak" for raw materials. "Veres" company said it was not interested to purchase this production capacity. "Two years ago we purchased Cherkasy cannery, one of the largest plants of the country, so we have reserves of processing capacities".
The other leader of sauces market, Nestle company (ТМ "Torchin-Product") implements own project: it constructs plant in Volynskaya region and invests EUR60 mln. to this activity. The enterprise for sauce, ketchup, and baby food production is planned to be launched as soon as in 2008. The enterprise "Skadovskiy cannery" was the filial of "Chumak" company, its capacity amounted to up to 1.2 mln. kg of tomatoes daily. According to "Chumak" data, in 2008 the capacity of Kakhovskiy tomato processing plant will increase twofold up to 2.5 mln. kg of tomatoes of daily processing.
"Chumak" is founded by Swedish South Food jointly with several Kherson plants in 1996; the plants of the companies united into Closed JSc "Chumak" in 2000. It produces ketchups, sauces, tomato juice, tomato paste, mayonnaise, sunflower oil, canned vegetables, macaroni products under trademarks "Chumak", "Darina". Kakhovskiy and Skadovskiy plants belong to the "Chunak" group, as well as the plant for refining and bottling of sunflower oil in Kakhovka (all plants are located in Khersonskaya region). 59.6% shares of "Chumak" company are owned by Manhasset Investments Ltd. (Cyprus), 31.9% - by Chumak Holdings GmbH (Austria). According to the results of 2006, the capacity of Ukrainian ketchup market to around 30,000 tons. "Chumak" share is around 30%.
You will find out the details of canned fruit & vegetable market in Ukraine from the specialists of the largest processing enterprises during the fourth international conference-exhibition "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader" on the 4th-6th 2007 in Kyiv on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine".