12 May 2004
Today, 12 May, the Grundfos Group inaugurated its new sales company in Kiev in the Ukraine. Already during the first year, the Ukrainian sales company is expected to achieve a turnover of EUR 8 million, and in years 2-3 the Group expects the turnover to double.
Executive Vice President, Søren Ø. Sørensen, made the following statement in connection with the inauguration: “In recent years, the Group has focused on expanding in the Eastern European markets, and the large Ukrainian market is an important part of this strategy. It is important for us to be present locally on the markets in which we are active in order to stay in close contact with the customers.” The sales company in the Ukraine is the first step in the Group’s acceleration plan to establish 2-3 new companies in Eastern Europe in the next couple of years.
The company is fully operational with sales, marketing and service facilities, and it will shortly open local sales offices in strategic locations in the Ukraine. During the first year, it will employ 25 staff.
Grundfos is already well established in the Ukraine as far as heat circulation, cooling and air-conditioning pumps are concerned, and in the coming years the Group will concentrate on gaining market shares in the manufacturing, water supply and waste water industries.
The Grundfos Group is currently expanding through a number of investments in Eastern Europe. A new Russian production company – an investment in excess of EUR 13 million - is under construction and will be ready later this year. In the course of the next two years, the Group expects to open sales companies in both Bulgaria and Romania.
It is extremely important to the Grundfos Group that new companies are sustainable – also in the long term - for the benefit of both Grundfos and the development of Ukrainian society as a whole. Søren Sørensen stated: “It is important that the new companies build on the Group’s fundamental values about responsibility and focus on people. We wish to establish a company that is profitable in the long run but also contributes to a higher standard of living in the new countries – two objectives that go hand in hand.”
Today, the new company was officially inaugurated by Executive Vice President Søren Ø. Sørensen, the Austrian ambassador to the Ukraine, Michael Miess, and Mats Danker, the Grundfos Group’s regional manager in the Eastern European region.
|
