Kraft Foods Shuts Down Romanian Chocolate Factory By End 2009

Candy and coffee maker Kraft Foods Romania will shut down its chocolate factory in Brasov, central Romania, and will relocate activity to other units.

The unit in Brasov is the only one Kraft owns in Romania, and has about 440 employees.

"The shutdown has nothing to do with the international crisis. Sales increased a lot in Romania in recent years and we needed to up our production capacity, but possibilities in Brasov were limited in terms of space, as the factory is in the city center and expansion was not an option, so we decided to up production in other factories the group owns," Doina Cavache, corporate affairs manager al Kraft Foods Romania, told MEDIAFAX Wednesday.

She added production will be relocated gradually, until the end of next year, including in the groups' factory in Bulgaria.

"We'll stay on the market with the same products, the same brands," Cavache said.

The factory's 440 employees will receive severance pay and Kraft will hire an agency to help them find new jobs, the company official added.

The company entered the Romanian market in 1994, when Kraft Foods International bought the local candy factory in Brasov, Poiana Produse Zaharoase.

Kraft Foods has annual revenues exceeding $37 billion, and employs over 100,000 people in 180 production units worldwide.

Mediafax