Estonia, Foodstuff, Labour-market, Latvia, Markets and Companies

Dana Ercina-Uzane, Marketing Director at Orkla Foods Latvija, said that, in order to enhance specialization and competitiveness of the group's factories, a decision has been made to move production of mayonnaise and salad dressings for the Estonian and Finnish markets from a plant in Estonia to Latvia. At the same time, production of mustard, dressings and tomato sauces for the Lithuanian market will be moved from Lithuania to Latvia while production of Gutta juices, nectars and juice drinks will be moved from Latvia to Estonia.

The production plant in Valdlauci near Riga is still making Gutta products in 2-liter cartons for now. After the completion of the transfer of juice production to Estonia at the end of the first quarter 2017, the plant in Valdlauci will continue making Everest drinking water, Riga Kvass Drink (a fermented non-alcoholic beverage) and some other products.

Production of Gutta juices, nectars and juice drinks in one-liter and 0.2-liter cartons was moved to Estonia in the second half of this year, the marketing director said, explaining that the production transfer is organized in several stages.

She stressed that output in Latvia had increased as a result of the ongoing production transfers and specialization of the production plants. There have been no layoffs related to the reorganization. Employees, who will become redundant at the Valdlauci plant have been offered jobs at another of Orkla Foods Latvija plants in Latvia - Spilve in the Babite region near Riga. Some employees have chosen not to accept the offer and have either retired or decided to look for new jobs elsewhere but there have been no layoffs related to the production transfer, Ercina-Uzane said.

Norwegian food group Orkla in August 2014 acquired Latvia's NP Foods group and later decided to merge Latvian food companies Laima, Staburadze, Latfood and NP Foods into one company called Orkla Confectionery&Snacks Latvija and also to merge Latvian companies Spilva and Gutta into another company, Orkla Foods Latvija.

Orkla Foods Latvija last year generated EUR 24.39 mln in turnover compared to EUR 21.58 mln in 2014 and its profit increased to EUR 1.61 mln from EUR 1.39 mln in 2014, according to Firmas.lv business information database.