ATRIA INVESTS IN A LOGISTICS CHAIN
Atria Group plc STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE 20 May 2005, 10:00 am
ATRIA INVESTS IN A LOGISTICS CHAIN Atria Group plc will expand its current logistics centre in Nurmo with a 37- million euro investment. The existing part of the state-of-the-art system was completed in 2001, and the new extension will be ready in spring 2007. The extention contains of 11 000 square metres of new room, 94 000 cubic metres. In the meantime it nearly doubles the current capacity. The strong increase in Atria's sales has turned the planned logistics investment into a topical issue. The centralised Nurmo dispatching centre currently delivers some 500,000 kilos of products every day. The needs of trade and catering customers for increasingly individual and ever more frequent deliveries, built on the principle of continuous supply, create additional demands. This means smaller delivery lots and larger numbers of shipments involving circulating plastic packaging boxes. Atria has also been able to continuously reinforce its position and improve its performance on the domestic market. There are several factors involved in this development, such as successful investments in modern production and logistics solutions. As the largest manufacturer of meat products in the Baltic Sea region, Atria wants to maintain its position at the leading edge of logistics and customer service in the industry, which it achieved through the advanced automation solution introduced in 2001. A few years ago, Atria was named the number one logistics company in Finland. By using highly advanced logistics systems, Atria also aims at ensuring that customers receive products fresh directly from the production line. This is particularly important for trade since consumers' first demand is for fresh products. Atria also believes this to be one of its primary advantages in the competition against imported products. Atria has promised to disclose its plans concerning potential steps in Russia before the holiday season. The goal is to establish a position on the meat product market in western Russia. In the long term Atria considers it possible to achieve a significant role on the strongly growing Russian market. The modern retail chains in Russia are currently undergoing a period of rapid development and boosting the demand for highly processed meat products. Atria Group plc's turnover for the first quarter of the year was up by 19.5 per cent, with the Group's profit also increasing from the previous year. In 2004, the Group's turnover amounted to 833.7 million euro and its profit before taxes was 33.7 million euro. This year we are anticipating a turnover of well over 900 million euro. Seppo Paatelainen Chief Executive Officer DISTRIBUTION Helsinki Stock Exchange Principal media www.atria.fi