Nepalese CG Foods Europe opens noodle factory in Ruma – Municipality negotiating with another three investors

The Nepalese company CG Foods Europe, which produces Wai Wai noodles, initiated the production in its facility in Ruma on Tuesday, September 19, 2017.

The company, which is located in the Rumska Petlja Working Zone, is a member of the global conglomerate Cinnovation Group, which operates in several spheres (infrastructure, hotel business, banking, telephony, food industry, cigarettes and drinks), and EUR 9 million has been invested in the production facility in Ruma so far, the municipality reported. As announced, the official opening of the factory has been scheduled for October 5.

According to general manager of CG Foods Europe, B.K. Loda, the factory in Ruma will be also be a kind of a training center for workers from other factories within the company.

– This is our first noodle factory in Europe, and we will start conquering a big market from Ruma – Loda said.

According to the president of the Municipality of Ruma, Sladjan Mancic, the newly opened facility already employs 100 workers, and another 50-60 are to be employed by the end of the year.

– By the end of 2018, the investor obliges to employ a total of 409 workers – Mancic stated.

Deputy manager of CG Foods Europe, Aleksandar Protic, said that nearly 90% of ingredients for the production of noodles originated in Serbia.

– We import a minor part of raw materials from abroad, mostly spices, but we will soon start getting those in Serbia as well. We plan to export 80-90% of the products from Ruma to foreign markets – Protic said.

According to Mancic, EUR 50 million has been invested in Ruma from 2014.

Interest in investing in Ruma growing among companies

As the municipality told eKapija, so far, the companies which have opened their facilities in Ruma are Hutchinson, HealthCare Europe, Calzedonia, Mitas Trelleborg, Falc East, Albon, Capital Group, Matis Mebl and Andrijasevic.

The municipality says that negotiations with a few other investors are in progress as well and that the agreements will be reached before the beginning of the construction season. They also announce the arrival of three new companies, but are not able to specify the names for now.

– The Municipality of Ruma is continually negotiating with potential investors interested in our working zone. These are mostly entrepreneurs in the car industry. Of course, local investors are interested as well, which is laudable. These are investors that are either already operating in the territory of our municipality and looking to expand their production or those who are operating in other towns and municipalities and looking to expand or move their production here. However, the business policies of those companies do not allow us to disclose details for the time being – the Municipality of Ruma told eKapija.

As the municipality explains, potential investors are offered locations in five working zones – East, West, South, Southwest and the working zone in the municipal area, one of whose parts is called Rumska Petlja.

Mitas to employ another 200 workers

One of the companies which already operate in the municipality and which are to expand their production in the upcoming period is Mitas, which operates as part of the Swedish company Trelleborg. As the company, which produces pneumatic components for off-road vehicles (agricultural and industrial vehicles and machines, motorcycles) told eKapija, it will employ another 200 workers in the facility currently under construction by 2019.

– The factory will be completed in mid-2018, and we will reach our full capacity in 2019 – the company, which currently employs 550 people in Ruma, said for our portal.

When it comes to local companies, Rumekon has moved its facility to the Rumska Petlja zone. According to Marko Stupar, the sales manager in the company, which produces containers for storage, collection and transport of waste, as well as equipment and machinery for recycling and processing various types of waste, the moving to the new facility, with an area of 6,000 square meters, will increase the production capacities by 30%, and around 15 new workers have been employed.

– We are for now operating in a single shift and we are managing to produce the demanded amounts. If the market demands increase, we might introduce another shift and employ new people in the coming period – Stupar explains for eKapija.

The company currently produces around 170 tons of steel processed into finished products, and 60-70% of what they produce is exported to the EU market.

One of the foreign investors to open a second facility in Ruma in 2017 is Hutchinson, a French producer of rubber hoses for cooling devices for cars. The company, which has been active in Serbia since 2016, when it started its first plant in Ruma, plans to open another two facilities by the end of 2020. According to their business plan, Hutchinson should be employing a total of 1,600 people in Ruma by 2020.

As municipal officials told eKapija, the project is divided into three phases. The first phase was the opening of the 6,800-m2 facility, the second one is the construction of another production unit of 3,500 m2 and the works are to start in 2018, whereas the third phase depends on the second one and is to be planned accordingly. They couldn't specify the deadlines and the work schedule.

What is known so far is that the project of the construction of a waste water treatment facility has started in this factory, which the Government of Serbia obliged to during the signing of an agreement with this French company. The public invitation for the contractor is in progress and the Ruma industrial zone should get the cleaning facility within 18 months of the coming into effect of the agreement on the public procurement.

Katarina Stevanovic

Opština Ruma

CG Foods Europe d.o.o. Ruma

Cinnovation group Nepal

Hutchinson d.o.o. Ruma

Healthcare Europe d.o.o. Ruma

Adriana.Tex Ruma

Trelleborg wheel systems Serbia doo Ruma

Falc east doo Knjaževac

Albon Engineering & Manufacturing Pećinci

Capital group d.o.o. Beograd

Matis d.o.o. Ivanjica

Andrijašević d.o.o. Ruma

Rumekon d.o.o. Ruma

Vlada Republike Srbije

CG Foods Europe

HealthCare Europe

Calzedonia

Mitas Trelleborg

Trelleborg

Falc East

Albon Pecinci

Matis Mebl

Everrest

Healthcare Co Ltd

Rumska Petlja industrial zone

Wai Wai noodles

production of noodles

noodles

BK Loda

car industry

automotive industry

production of pneumatics

production of rubber

pneumatics

rubber

containers

production of containers

waste treatment

Srdjan Mancic

Aleksandar Protic

Marko Stupar