Austrian company amb Wine, part of amb Holding, has recently announced the official launch of Liliac Transylvania premium wines, its first wine brand in Romania, following an investment of EUR 3 million so far. The Austrian holding also has real estate and agricultural investments in Romania.

The company has a production capacity of 100,000 bottles per year and plans to sell 30,000 bottles in the first year. About 30 percent will go to export, for the time being, just to Austria.

amb Wine’s development plans for 2012 include adding another 12 hectares to the existing 38 ha of vines, located in Batos and Vermes Lechinta areas in Romania's central region of Transylvania, and expects to reach a total of 65 ha in the next four years. In 2013, the company wants to invest around a further EUR 2 million in the wine cellar and in the wine production facilities.

The company estimates a production of around 350,000 bottles per year in 2016. Moreover, amb Wine plans to increase its share for export to 40 percent, and also to diversify the countries for export, to England, Germany, Scandinavia, China, and the US.

The work on this project has been ongoing since June 2010, and the company currently has 14 permanent employees.

amb Holding has activities in real estate, forest estate, bio development, stone development and wine making. Its division amb Agro is already active in Romania, where it farms 700 hectares in the Oltenia region. Real estate company S+B Gruppe, where amb Holding holds the majority of shares, has assets in Romania,  an office building on Magheru boulevard downtown Bucharest, currently under renovation, and a planned 25,000 office building Airport City Park, scheduled for 2014. The one downtown Bucharest (in picture below), some 4,000 sqm, should be ready this year.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com