Exports generated more than two thirds of the revenue (EUR87 million), while profit stood at RON9.02 million, down 50% on 2010.
Egger is part of the Austrian group by the same name and is gaining ground on the wood market, whose leaders is another Austrian-held company, Holzindustrie Schweighofer (according to the 2010 data, the latest available).
Egger put Romania on its map in January 2008 when it invested EUR210 million in a plant in Radauti (north of the country), which makes particleboard mainly. It continued investments there in 2010, when it spent EUR17 million on equipment and an office building for its employees. The entire project in Radauti costs EUR500 million and 60% of the money comes from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IMF), which also owns 7.48% in the plant.
The top three competitors in the wood industry, Egger, Holzindustrie Schweighofer and Kronospan, posted almost EUR700 million in revenue in 2010, which level is unlikely to have gone down in 2011. (EUR1=RON4.2379)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)