Michael Whitney, general manager of Bunge Romania, the leading player on the vegetable oil market, says next year the company could reach a 40% market share, a 3-4% increase against this year.
"I think we will see much lower losses this year. I want to believe we will be able to turn a profit, but even if we do see losses, they will be much lower than last year," says Whitney.
The three plants owned by the American group on the local market (Interoil, Unirea and Muntenia) last year posted cumulated turnover worth 106 million euros and losses worth 13.3 million euros, according to the financial results published on the Finance Ministry's web site.
Interoil Oradea reported the lowest losses of the group, just 2.2 million euros, compared with Muntenia Bucharest, which saw losses worth 7.7 million euros.
The poor performance of the Muntenia plant prompted Bunge representatives to close it down last year and to sell the 6-hectare plot of land located close to the centre of Bucharest.
"We are in negotiations with a number of potential buyers and we estimate these negotiations will be finalised by the end of the year. We hope to get a good price because it is an attractive location," says Whitney. He did not offer further details on the negotiations, but specified that the companies interested came from various sectors and are both Romanian and foreign companies.
"After we sell, we'll see what we have to do, and most likely by March 2007, we'll change our head office," he added.
Whitney took over as the general manager of Bunge Romania in July but had previous experience working on the Romanian market. In 1995 he ran the local branch of spirits producer Allied Domecq.
Following his stint with Allied Domecq, Whitney was in charge of operations of Reckitt Benckiser in Egypt, Romania and Bulgaria, between 2000 and 2002.
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