Anakom launches vermicelli plant in Rostov region - Company News - Brief Article

Eurofood, Nov 7, 2002

The Moscow-based company Anakom, the maker of quick-preparation vermicelli of the same brand name, and distributor Aleks-Rostov have opened a new plant in the Rostov region.

Aleks-Rostov spokesman Andrei Kholopov told Interfax that overall investment in the project came to US$3.6m (3.65m [euro]). "Initially the plan was for putting US$3m into the plant, but another 20% more was needed."

Kholopov noted that the additional monies were put into increasing the new enterprise's production capacity to sixty million packages of vermicelli per month, or twice the originally planned output. The Anakom product will be shipped directly to Southern Russia. Company specialists figure that demand will be higher than the new plant can satisfy.

Anakom had also been looking at the possibility of building yet another enterprise in the Leningrad region, Kholopov reported, but the plans were not finalised. The company already has plants outside Moscow and in Novosibirsk. Anakom specialists predict that Russia's market for quick-preparation vermicelli will expand about 20% this year from last year's roughly 300 million packages.