5 December 2006 - Wheelie bin manufacturer Helesi, which is based in Greece but has factory in other European countries, is now trading on London’s Alternative Investment Exchange following a share issue that raised £11.6m.
The cash will be the basis for a four-year investment programme, from 2006-2009. This will see €25.4m spent on setting up a new factory in Pisticci, Italy and a further €7.0m used to establish assembly, distribution and sales centres in Germany, Spain, France, Sweden and India.
Helesi chief executive Sakis Andrianopoulos summarised the group’s flotation as being a platform to strengthen its existing market position, expand operations and enter new high growth, high margin markets.
This programme will include an €14.1m expansion of the production plant in Komotini, northern Greece where there are currently eight injection moulding machines producing over one million containers annually. The plant operated at 60% capacity on a three-shift, 24-hour basis in 2005, consuming 6,900 tonnes of HDPE.
In addition to wheelie bins, the Greek factory also produces pallet boxes and other materials handling products, and they will be the focus for the Italian plant.
In 2005 Helesi made a pre-tax profit of €3.2m on a turnover of €25.34m.
