De’Longhi Romania, part of the Italian group De’Longhi, became the group’s largest production center after it produced more than 4.4 million espresso machines, mixers, and blenders at the Jucu factory near Cluj-Napoca, Profit.ro reported.

Last year, the factory produced over 1.4 million fully automated espresso machines, 2.3 million small appliances for food preparation, and 700,000 capsule espresso machines. Its businesses increased by 30% in value terms, to RON 1.22 billion (EUR 270 mln).

The company will invest EUR 9 mln in automation and new equipment for new production lines at its Romanian plant, which is expected to deliver the same output in 2019 as well.

De’Longhi operates a factory in Jucu on a 65,000 sqm platform it took over in February 2012. Most of the production in Cluj is exported to countries such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. The Romanian plant overtook last year the production unit in China and became the group’s largest.

“If we look at the fully automated espresso machines and hand mixers categories, 85% of our 2018 sales are produced in our Jucu unit,” commented Peter Ferluga, De’Longhi Romania’s commercial manager.

The factory just employed 220 more people at the Jucu factory, Massimo Paronitti, Operations Director for Europe, said in a press conference at the Cluj County headquarters on May 21, stressing that finding workers is not an easy job on the local market.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/De'Longhi Romania)