Unilever's chairperson for South-Central Europe says the group has decided to analyse the departments and activities of the company in Romania in comparison with the European practice, with the accession in mind.

"In order to prepare for this moment, our company started a complex programme, called "Getting ready for Europe" two years ago, whose role is to analyse each department and all company activities against the European practice," stated Alexandra Gatej, chairman of Unilever South-Central Europe (USCE). One result of the new strategy was the outsourcing of logistic and transport services, according to Alexandra Gatej, 40, who has been in charge of USCE's business since November 2005.

"We believe the integration in the European Union is a process that will have positive effects on the competitive environment where we as a company are developing. The integration will generate fair competition, a competition where everyone follows the same rules and which will help us better exploit the synergies with our European operations," explains Gatej.

The company will concentrate its whole production in Romania in Ploiesti, where it is building a plant. The investment in this facility will stand at about 3m euros. The production of spices, sauces and Knorr soups (which were produced in the Otopeni-based plant until now) and the production of margarine (which used to be produced in Targu-Mures) will be transferred here. "Unilever made the decision to concentrate production in one location in order to boost efficiency of its production and distribution operations. This attempt to make operations more efficient is part of the company's long-term plans for developing the business in Romania," Gatej adds. The process to relocate production facilities will end this November. The two plants in Targu-Mures and Otopeni will be sold, and the company is currentl