Lavango Group to double its presence at Klaipeda FEZ

Leading global food industry technology manufacturer Lavango Group has announced that it is expanding its presence at Klaipeda FEZ. The company, which produces equipment for the food industry, has acquired an additional 0,32 ha of land in Klaipeda FEZ territory to build their new facilities, which will allow them to increase their present production capacity. This is the second phase of the company’s expansion, the first of which was completed in 2017 when it transferred all its operations to its present 0,38 ha facilities at Klaipeda FEZ. Lavango Group is set to invest 0,8 m Eur in the new building, and along with the purchasing of new equipment for the facility, the company projects that around 15 new FTE’s will be created.

This new expansion has been precipitated by rising demand in the European market for its products – equipment used in the food industry for raw material processing, packaging and transportation.

“The expansion of our plant is a result of the rising revenue and export of the company. Our current goal is strengthening our positions in Scandinavian markets, namely, in manufacturing equipment for fish-processing vessels and food processing plants,” says Vygandas Srebalius, CEO at Lavango Group.

The company generates most of its revenue from its key markets, which at present include Scandinavia, the Baltics, Russia, Belarus, Germany and Spain.

Mr Srebalius attributes much of Lavango Group’s ability to expand its business to the innovations that it put in place after movingto Klaipeda FEZ.

“One of them was investing into our own metal processing lathes and sanding technology. This allowed us to improve the quality of the parts we produce. Not only that, we also began to provide lathing services for other clients.”

Klaipeda FEZ has seen a number of its clients expanding their operations in 2018, with the most notable examples thus far being NEO GROUP and Retal Baltic, whose expansion projects combined amounted to investments of 54 m Eur. Indeed, such expansion projects account for a considerable amount of the entire investments made annually at Klaipeda FEZ, around 20%, according to Eimantas Kiudulas, CEO at Klaipeda FEZ Management Company. It is the relative ease with which such projects can be implemented that is one of the main drivers for this, as Mr. Kiudulas explains:

“The ability to launch operations as soon as possible is becoming of increasing importance to many investors, that is why Klaipeda FEZ also leases land with building permits that have already been set up. For instance, the first stage of Lavango Group’s launch at Klaipeda FEZ in 2017 took as little as 6 months.”

Lavango Group’s new facility is set to be opened in Summer 2019.