A new high-tech line for chocolates production, launched at the Dnipropetrovsk Confectionary by AVK in early October 2006, allowed for retaining jobs and upgrading skills of personnel at this AVK facility, the company told LED Monitor on Monday.
Olena Zubenko, AVK PR officer, said the number of jobs has even increased as a result of the $6 million investment project. The new, Switzerland-made, line was installed in place of a hard candy line, dismantled as producing “obsolete items, which bear no additional values, vitamins, etc.,” she said. The project lasted for about a year, during which time the attending personnel underwent training to upgrade their skills.
According to the PR officer, the company’s strategy is to get rid of “primitive Soviet-type” products, such as hard candies, caramels, and drops, and focus on “unique, complex and healthy products.” That is why the old line was scrapped, she said and observed that the new line was installed also to retain jobs, which otherwise would have become redundant.
Ms. Zubenko also reported that AVK has invested a total of over $11 million in the Dnipropetrovsk Confectionary since acquisition of the facility in April 2003.
AVK was established in 1991 as a company specialized in supply of cocoa products to Ukrainian confectionaries. Presently, the company has controlling interests in five confectionaries located in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, and Mukacheve.
Sources:
http://www.avk.ua/ukr/
http://rynok.biz/ukr/news/foods/1953
