MEAT STILL NOT MAKING MONEY

Two years ago all the big Slovak meat-processing plants fell into the hands of investment groups. Penta and Eco-Invest replaced the original groups, which were financially ruined. Penta and Eco-Invest showed their own financial capabilities after their takeover. Prior to last year the number of investments in this business doubled to 40 million euros. The average monthly salary of butchers increased by one-tenth to 500 euros. But the meat business is still not profitable. The financiers bought unprofitable, indebted businesses, which were cheap. This was done with the idea of creating mergers and healing the plants, paving the way to profit. But even after Penta and Eco-Invest took over, the meat sector showed an accumulated loss of almost seven million euros. So now the business is undergoing a fast restructuring. Inefficient plants are being closed and production is being moved to factories in better condition. By summer’s end, Penta had closed Levice’s PM Zbrojníky and had moved its production to the meat-processing plants in Humenné and Lučenec. 140 people were laid off. Almost 300 employees in Levice are still working in the warehouses of the meat-holding group. Eco-Invest is also reacting to the underperforming meat industry. At the end of last year Eco-Invest announced that in the first months of this year they will close the plant in Myjava, moving production to the Gemer region, where there’s the biggest factory in Rimavská Sobota, owned by the Tauris Group. 120 of Myjava’s butchers will lose their jobs. Milan Fiľo, owner of Eco-Invest, built the company based on his main business: paper production. Through the aforementioned moves, Fiľo is trying to improve the second business. “We have to improve the meat business,” said Ivan Fábry, general director and head boardmember of Tauris. Originally he headed SHP Harmanec, which produces hygienic paper. I Pg. 30