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€12.5 million loan helps Finland's Huhtamäki Oyj expand in Russia
EBRD makes first direct food packaging deal in Russia
In one of its first food packaging projects in Russia, the EBRD is providing a
€12.5 million loan to Huhtamaki S.N.G., a Russian subsidiary of Huhtamäki Oyj,
a leading global consumer packaging company based in Finland, to support its
expansion across the country.
Huhtamäki has been present in Russia since 1994 and is a market leader in the
consumer-packaging business in the Moscow region. The EBRD loan will enable
Huhtamaki S.N.G. to support its continuing expansion both in Moscow and
regions outside the capital city.
Hans Christian Jacobsen, Director of the Agribusiness team at the EBRD, said
the project will enable a leading food-packaging manufacturer to expand in a
growing and dynamic market, and that the project should help to stimulate
competition in Russia's food-processing sector. He also emphasised the
importance of the packaging industry for the whole food chain, providing
high-quality, hygienic packaging to local and international food and
food-service companies in Russia.
With over 70 factories and more than 16,000 employees in 36 countries,
Huhtamäki is a leading global packaging company specialising in paper,
plastic, film and moulded fibre. Huhtamäki's commitment to expand into the
Russian food-packaging market dates back to the 1980s, when the company first
started looking for opportunities to launch local production.
Timo Salonen, Chief Financial Officer at Huhtamäki Oyj, said the first
facility, in Ivanteevka near Moscow, came on stream in 1994 and has firmly
established itself as a competitive, reliable and innovative business in the
food and food service packaging sector. He said Huhtamäki's business in Russia
is now set to grow further, and that the EBRD's loan will provide the
necessary financing to support the company's planned growth.
To date the EBRD has provided more than €3 billion for 174 projects in the
agribusiness sector in central and eastern Europe and the CIS.
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