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EBRD helps meet Russian bottle demand
EUR7.9 million loan to restructure Turkish-owned plant in northwest Russia
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending €7.9 million to help restructure a Turkish-owned bottling plant in Russia where continued growth in the consumption of beverages, particularly beer, has led to strong demand for glass containers.
The loan will help Turkey’s Anadolu Cam complete and restructure OJSC Pokrov Glass Plant, in northwest Russia, which it acquired last March. Anadolu Cam is part of the leading Turkish industrial group Turkiye Sise ve Cam Fabrikalari A.S.
The first phase of the project includes streamlining of operations, improving quality standards and strengthening efficiency. The second phase contemplates a capacity expansion, including a second furnace.
This project will bring the level of skills, training and manufacturing know-how to a company where these factors are urgently required, said Hans Christian Jacobsen, EBRD Director of Agribusiness. It should provide the Russian food processing industry with greater choice and better quality on a stable basis and will thus ultimately benefit the customer.
Teoman Yenigun, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Anadolu Cam, welcomed the EBRD’s support to help the company expand in the Russian market and take full advantage of the rapidly growing demand for beer bottles in the country.
Anadolu Cam has three plants in Turkey and in recent years has started to focus on high-growth neighbouring countries. In 1997 it bought a glass bottling plant in Georgia with the IFC and the EBRD.
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