GERMANY

• Technology supplier raises game
  Technology and services supplier Robert Bosch’s division Bosch Rexroth will invest a further 30 million Euro in its factory in Blaj by 2010. A new production hall will open at the beginning of 2009, when 140 people will be employed in addition to the 300 already existing at the Blaj plant. Bosch Rexroth supplies materials for driving, controlling and moving machinery used in industrial and factory automation, as well as for mobile applications.

• Car parts giant ups stake in country
  Car parts giant Continental plans to invest 40 million Euro more in all of its plants in Romania in 2008. “All present activities will continue to be extended in the future, especially with increasing the production capacity of the plants,” says Thierry Wipff, general manager of Continental in Romania. This year the company plans production of around 13 million tyres for the replacement market in Europe, the USA and Asia.

• Cash & carry store plans new unit
  Retailer Metro Cash & Carry plans to open one new store in Deva, Hunedoara county in “the near future” according to Francois Oliver, general manager of Metro Cash & Carry. The chain, which last year posted a 1.5 billion Euro turnover in Romania alone, has 23 stores countrywide.

• Shoe chain heads for Bucharest
  Shoe chain Deichmann is planning to open six more stores this year in Bacau, Oradea, Focsani (Vrancea county), Buzau, Fagaras (Brasov county), Targu-Mures and, for the first time, in Bucharest. This is in addition to its seven stores in the country.

• Clothing store in autumn expansion
  German clothing store Takko Fashion International will open five new stores this month in Oradea, Constanta, Bacau, Buzau and Focsani in Vrancea county, bringing the company’s total estate in Romania to 19. The investment in one store stands between 150,000 and 450,000 Euro and the brand mainly target shopping galleries close to hypermarkets.

• Discounter to reach 70 stores
  Retailer Rewe Group will invest 45 million Euro in Romania in 2008 as it expands its discount Penny Market brand from 55 to 70 stores. The group will also extend its warehouses in Stefanestii de Jos, Ilfov county and in Turda, Cluj county. The company also has six larger format Penny Market stores. The company has a target of 100 units by the end of 2009. Penny Market focuses on towns with about 15,000 inhabitants.

FRANCE

• Retailer continues branch drive
  French retail chain Carrefour has poured around 40 million Euro into its 16th and 17th Romanian hypermarkets in European Retail Park Focsani and Era Shopping Park Iasi. The retailer, which was one of the first international stores to enter Romania, also opened four more smaller-format Carrefour Expres supermarkets in Arad, Oradea, Campina (Prahova county) and Deva (Hunedoara county).

TURKEY

• Agro-giant builds co-generation unit
  Mures-county based fertiliser producer Azomures has announced a 211 million Euro investment programme over the next three years in building a co-generation unit and modernising its urea and ammonia facilities. Azomures has spent 70 million Euro since 1998, when the Turkish group bought out the state-owned fertiliser plant. Azomures is majority owned by Transworld Fertilizers Holding.

USA

• Care products factory for Prahova
  Fast moving consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble (P&G) has chosen Romania to invest more than 70 million Euro in a factory making personal care products for the European market. The new plant will be situated in Urlati, Prahova county and will create 300 new jobs. The US-owned multinational currently operatoes a detergent plant in Timisoara.

ISRAEL

• Home developer targets main cities
  Israeli real estate company RSK will develop four residential projects in the cities of Brasov, Timisoara, Iasi and Cluj-Napoca. Located in Brasov, in Racadau neighbourhood on a 10,000 sqm land plot, Alpin Towers Residences will include 500 apartments in four towers of 18 floors. Green Acres residential complex will be situated in the Mehala Bucovina area in Timisoara with 1,400 apartments over a 53,500 sqm land plot. In Iasi, RSK will develop 345 apartments on a 15,500 sqm plot near the mall Era Shopping Center. RSK has acquired ten per cent of a 30 ha land plot in Cluj county and is waiting for the zoning plan to start construction of another residential complex.

• Israelis plan new Pipera development
  Israeli real estate company Shapir Group will develop a residential project on a 75,730 sqm land plot in Pipera. North Park Residence will include 1,500 residential units to be delivered in three stages. Around 400 flats in ten buildings will be concluded in the first development stage. The second and the third stages will deliver, besides a new set of apartments, 9,000 sqm of commercial spaces.

AUSTRIA

• Packager builds up in Targoviste
  Packaging producer Rondocarton, part of the Rondo Ganahl group, has invested 30 million Euro in building a corrugated cardboard plant in Targoviste, Dambovita county. Rondocarton has one existing plant in Romania in Apahida, Cluj county, which employs 171 people.

• Panel maker opens Suceava plant
  Wood-based panel producer Egger has invested about 210 million Euro in building a plant which has opened in Radauti, Suceava county. The new factory will create more than 300 jobs. The products made in Romania will be distributed locally and to export markets in Ukraine, Turkey and the Middle East.