Hame ups Slovakia sales estimates
has upped its estimates for growth in the 2003 financial year,
claiming that it now expects sales of its canned vegetables, purees
and meat products to improve by 5 per cent over last year's
figures.
The estimates have pushed anticipated sales up from SKK860 million (€21m)at the start of the year to SKK900 million - which account for around 20 per cent of the total group sales. Earlier estimates had put growth at around 3 per cent, which, given the flat sales in the first half of the year, many observers believed would be hard to achieve.
However, company director general Lubomir Preclik reported that a concerted marketing drive to promote sales across the board had met with considerable success during its all-important summer trading months.
The company reported first half sales of SKK420 million this year - roughly in line with the corresponding half in the previous year. Currently 88 per cent of the company's sales come from the domestic market, while the remainder come from exports to the Czech market.
. The sales were led by meat products, which account for 55 per cent of the total, with canned vegetable products accounting for 17.5 per cent, tomato puree and ketchup products coming in at 12.5 per cent and sweet-assortments making up 11 per cent of the total.
Hame Slovakia's existing production plant in Stupava recently had its warehouse facilities modernised at a cost of SKK20 million in an effort to meet increased production demands. However, the company's recent spending spree has meant that it has had to put the brakes on further investments. This meant that in August Hame Babice said that it was postponing plans to build another production facility in Slovakia due to the recent purchase of new production facilities in Russia and Moldavia. The company now says that the facility will be built in 2005.
