Italians coming to Leningrad Oblast

Natuzzi may invest over $40 million in the factory, said an expert from the committee. However the possible starting dates of the project and its size remain unspecified. Natuzzi owns 15 factories located in Italy as well as in China, Brazil and Romania. Its yearly turnover is 960 million euros.

Another Italian company, the Lorenzi Vasco Group, plans to build a plant for producing Thermex - electric water heaters the committee reportedto Interfax on Thursday. "The group's investments will be around $50 million," said a committee representative. The plant located in the Tosno district of the Oblast is planned to start in the fall of 2004. Lorenzi Vasco Group is one of the top three electric water heater manufacturers in the world.

Meanwhile the Italian company Merloni TermoSanitari is planning to open its Ariston water heaters factory in 2005, the region committee reports. The construction of the new factory plant began in June 2003 on land plots rented from Russkyi Dizel in the Vsevolozhsky district of the Oblast. Experts say the plant has the capacity to produce 500,000 water heaters per year, with a possibility of doubling production. The 26 million euro project began in November 2002. The water heater parts are transported from Italy.

Merloni TermoSanitari is one of the leading electric and natural gas heaters manufacturers in the world with offices in 150 countries and a yearly turn-ver of over 1 billion.

News source: www.sptimes.ru