ROMANIA: Cris-Tim has planned 20 million euros investments by 2020 | Progresiv
Cris-Tim cold cuts producer continues to invest in business development, the budget allocated for the next two years being of 20 million euros, according to the information provided by Radu Timis, the group president, during the launch of the "More meat" project - a food transparency initiative to show meat percentages on the packaging of over 80 products. 
"For 2018, we budgeted 10 million euros for investments and the start was the acquisition of Diavist, a 16-ton factory that we upgraded and which we hope will reach a capacity of 30 tons a day by the end of the year. We also have planned investments in logistics, new technologies and new business segments on the list for the next year so that the level of investment will remain constant", Radu Timis said.
In addition, the entrepreneur aims to open a factory in England or Spain, based on the decision that the player exports 15% of the production - about 500 tons / month.
"We export cold cuts in 18 European countries such as England, Spain, Malta, Italy, Germany and Cyprus. And because the main export markets are England and Spain, we intend to go to one of these markets to do production, but we will see next year", added the entrepreneur who controls the Cris-Tim group.
After last year Cris-Tim launched the "Clean Label" campaign, the producer continues the transparency process of the cold cuts industry through the "More Meat" approach. The initiative comes as a result of the company's concern to respond to the desire of consumers to be properly informed. According to an ISRA Center study of 2017, nearly 40% of consumers mention meat content as the most important factor in choosing a brand. Thus, as of June, over 80 of Cris-Tim products have packs that even indicate on the face of the packages the percentage or amount of meat they contain.
"We started with the Clean Label when we revolutionized the entire food industry, not just cold cuts, and we did not stop here. Day by day we work to offer the best products. We refine recipes and, even if we could have done otherwise, we choose to have the highest quality and safety standards. As proof that we are dedicated to this cause, we have launched this transparency approach. As for investments, we are talking about a project that does not involve investment in technology, changes have been made at the recipe level in terms of meat quantity. However, the investment will come in support of prices at the same level and we are talking about about 2.75 million euros of direct financial impact, hoping this will be offset by volume increases", said the founder of Cris-Tim.
Through this project, Cris-Tim estimates that it will generate a 10% advance in volumes and a 15% increase in value driven by sales dynamics on the value added and specialty segment. In terms of expectations for this year, Radu Timis estimates that at group level, the company will report sales of 175 million euros, compared to 145 million euros in 2017.
"2018 looks very good. We are exactly where we have proposed financially, we still have not reached our target (20% n.r.), but we hope to have an overall 10% advance by the end of the year. In value, we hope to reach 175 million euros per business", concluded Radu Timis.
