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Brabantia and EuroMaint to open production facilities in Latvia
Dutch company Brabantia (http://www.brabantia.com/), Europe’s leading supplier of innovative household products, and EuroMaint Rail (http://www.euromaint.net/), the largest Swedish rail transport rolling stock maintenance company, are going to launch new units in Latvia.
Brabantia purchases brownfield site near Talsi
Brabantia (http://www.brabantia.com/), nowadays available in more than 80 countries worldwide, started off in early 1919 with 15 people in a small Dutch town of Aalst. Today, company offers a wide variety of household articles that can be classified in 5 main categories: waste storage, food storage, food preparation, laundry care and kitchen hardware.
The main markets for Brabantia are the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Prior to deciding upon a new factory in one of the new EU member states, Brabantia already operated three factories in Europe and two in China.
A number of Eastern European countries were evaluated starting from December 2005 when Brabantia first contacted the LIAA Representative Office in the Netherlands. After two years of research and numerous visits, Brabantia finally chose Latvia as it possessed the best match for the project.
The main reasons for selecting Latvia were well-developed metalworking traditions, Latvia’s membership to the EU and Euro-pegged currency, business friendly environment and professional support provided by LIAA investment specialists.
Marcel van de Velde, Brabantia’s Production Director, admitted that “The support and the professional assistance from LIAA was one of the main reasons why Latvia was chosen as the right place to start a production plant.”
Brabantia is now in the process of developing a production site near Talsi city, about 100 km distance northwest from the capital city of Riga. In the first phase of the project Brabantia will renovate a brownfield site of 3 500 m2 as well as build additional 3 300 m2. Beginning of production in Talsi is scheduled for the 3rd quarter of 2008. In Latvia Brabantia will produce bread bins and ironing tables, mostly planned for exports. The amount of investments will reach 8 m EUR and the new factory will employ 77 people.
EuroMaint Rail goes for Jelgava, the 4th largest city in Latvia 
EuroMaint Rail is one of the three subsidiaries of EuroMaint Group (http://www.euromaint.net/), a Swedish maintenance corporation primarily working in rail traffic and the engineering and processing industry. In 2007, EuroMaint was acquired by Ratos AB (http://www.ratos.se/), one of Europe’s largest private equity companies.
The new workshop of EuroMaint Rail in Latvia was officially opened on 11th March 2008 in Jelgava city. Jelgava which is the 4th largest city in Latvia with nearly 70 000 inhabitants is well-known for its rich industrial heritage in metal processing. In addition to that, it was also Jelgava’s favourable geographical location and good communications which became decisive factors in positive investment decision.
Mr Pether Wallin, Chairman of the Board of EuroMaint Rail Ltd.
The main focus of EuroMaint Rail’s new workshop which is its first production division outside Sweden will be to reprocess spare parts and components for rail vehicles. Number of employees is expected to increase to 35 by the end of year while the amount of investments will reach 2 m EUR.
In 2006, turnover of EuroMaint Group totalled 216 m
Newly opened workshop of EuroMaint Rail in Jelgava, Latvia
EuroMaint Rail is the 4th project in Jelgava completed with direct assistance from the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. The previous three were German AKG Thermotechnik Lettland (http://www.akg-gruppe.de/), Irish Smurfit Kappa Packaging (http://www.smurfitkappa.com/) and Norwegian Torgy Baltic (http://www.torgy.no/).
