Rollplast Group will invest 71 million leva in a new, high tech factory for the production of windows and glass products, shutters, interior and exterior doors and garage doors.

To facilitate the project, the company will first be accredited Class A status, which will be granted on Friday, February 6. Class A status would mean that the factory must have an entire different capacity of production - precisely Rollplast's intention: they will expand five times over, as well as enriching their assortment and production lines, Stroitelstvo Gradut reports.

The expansion project will take three years to complete in the industrial zone of Kostinbrod. The facility will constitute a total area of 71 694 sq m. The factory currently operates in the Sofia borough of Zaharna Fabrika where it runs a plant on a 15 000 sq m parcel of land. The Kostinbrod project will expand the factory's capacity five times over.

To finance the expansion, 40 per cent will come from Rollplast and 60 per cent will be raised externally from secured investors. The new production facility is going to employ at least 700 staff.

Once operating in full cylinders, the window and glass production will be expanded by more than 300 per cent. Other products, such as external and internal shutters, and operable louvered shutters and rotatable shutters will be produced.

PVC windows and aluminium door production is expected to rise by 40 per cent and 200 per cent respectively, plain shutters also by 300 per cent. New production lines of interior wooden doors will also be launched, according to Svetlin Nikolchev, president of Rollplast Group.

Annual turnover is expected to exceed 100 million leva, according to Nikolov. Although he admits that the economic crunch will affect the company he insists that "our ambition is to increase our market share from 10 to 15 per cent nationally, whereas in Sofia the target is to reach 30 per cent". Nikolov also says that "once the company establishes its dominance on the Bulgarian market, our objective is to invade the markets of Serbia, Romania and Macedonia," as quoted by Stroitelstvo Gradut.