Preview of the new plant of Centrale del Latte di Vicenza presented by the Board. The Plant will be officially opened on Saturday June 21. Total investments for Euro Euro30 million for the most modern and technological industrial site in the dairy industry in Italy today. Consolidated revenues as of May 31 2008 amounting to Euro 45.9 million (+11.9% vs. 31/5/2007).
Total investments for Euro 30 million Euro; total surface of 36,900 sqm, of which 13,000 for production, office, warehouse, and plants; 9,400 sqm of green areas and parking places, 10 production lines, for a total of 57 million litres processed every year, with possibility to double today’s production capacity.
These are in summary the figures for the new plant of Centrale del Latte di Vicenza, a company controlled (through a 91.74% shareholding) by the Gruppo Centrale Latte di Torino & C. S.p.A., a Company listed in the Star Segment of Borsa Italiana (the Italian Stock Exchange), which produces and sells fresh milk, dairy, and ultrafresh products.
The new plant, to be officially opened on Saturday June 21, has been judged to be the most modern production site in Italy in the dairy industry. It has been designed with a view to pooling and rationalising productions formerly carried out at different sites (via Medici in central Vicenza and Valdagno), to acquiring an excellent logistic position for the transportation and distribution of goods, not only in the Veneto region, but also in all the other regions where the CLT Group is working (e.g. Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy), as well as to increasing production capacity.
For Gruppo Centrale del Latte di Torino, Centrale di Vicenza accounts today for 25% of total sales (as of 31/12/200, CLV closed the FY with Euro 25 million sales, versus Euro 99.7 million reported by the Group). However, due to the potential of the new facility, this percentage is bound to increase in the medium term.
With a production capacity of 57 million litres processed every year, of both fresh and long life milk, yogurt and cream, the plant in Vicenza employs about 60 people, between production, accounting, and R&D. This latter department is going to become a centre of excellence for R&D of new products for the whole Gruppo Centrale del Latte di Torino.
The plant is equipped with leading edge equipment for the processing and packing of milk and dairy products with a total of 10 production lines, innovative automated analysis and control systems, and an efficient logistic platform for the management of the entire production cycle: from the arrival of raw material, to storage and finished product distribution.
The facility features two buildings and a back marshalling yard for raw material and finished product handling, designed to meet the highest efficiency, quality, sanitary, and logistic and control standards a food manufacturing company producing fresh and ultrafresh products has to comply with.
The project for the new plant was designed by studio Forma in Milan, with the objective of matching production and logistic requirements with environmental ones, while focusing on energy conservation issues and improvement of the 6,500 sqm green area surrounding the plant.
The entire project has been developed with the utmost attention to both aesthetics and architectural quality. The 2-storey, 12 m high building is externally lined with a zinc, copper and titanium alloy, coupled with white concrete blocks reminding of the calcareous stone typical of the Vicenza area. At the entrance to the building, there is a white marble statue by the artist Sylvia Loew meaningfully entitled “In Driblets”.
“The completion of the new plant in Vicenza – stated the Group’s President Mr. Luigi Luzzati – is a fundamental step in our long process begun back in 2002 with the acquisition of Centrale from the Municipality of Vicenza, followed by its gradual integration with the production and sales policies of our Group. Beginning of operations at the new plant will offer better development and growth opportunities for the whole Group, not only internally, but also in view of future joint ventures with other companies”.
“With the new facility – added President Luzzati – we will be able to further diversify our product portfolio especially in innovative and profitable premium market segments. In the first half of 2008, the Group launched 16 new products and, by the end of the year, we plan to launch 20 more new products”.
“For Centrale del Latte di Vicenza – added the Group’s CEO and President of Centrale del Latte di Vicenza, Mr. Riccardo Pozzoli – the new plant is the consummation of a long and complex process carried out with the commitment and hard work of the company, as well as of local authorities in order to create for the city, the Province, and the Region a state-of-the art milk and dairy production centre, designed to become a reference point also for the local farming industry”.
Gruppo Centrale del Latte di Torino closed the first quarter of 2008 with net proceeds amounting to Euro 27.5 million, EBITDA of Euro 2.3 million, EBIT of Euro 1.2 million Euro, and pre-tax earnings of 1 million Euro.
Consolidated sales as of May 31 2008 of Gruppo Centrale del Latte di Torino amounted to Euro 45.9 million, with an 11.9% growth versus the same period of 2007.
Turin – June 18, 2008