BUCHAREST (Romania), July 10 (SeeNews) – Romanian spirits producer Alexandrion Grup said it plans to invest some $100 million (97.8 million euro) in a new distillery in the US state of New York.
Alexandrion plans to start construction of the new facility in a few months and to put it into operation next summer.
"We will build a distillery with an area similar to the one in Romania, maybe a little bigger and we will have 400 employees, the same as in Romania. We will also hire Romanians," Alexandrion Group CEO Nawaf Salameh said on Friday during a press conference organised by the ministry for business environment, trade and entrepreneurship. The conference was streamed on the ministry's Facebook page.
The distillery will make whiskey, gin and rum as well as typical American and Romanian products.
The company's investment in the US comes after five years of research.
Alexandrion Grup was founded in 1994 and has two production units in Romania - one in Radauti, in Suceava county and one in Ploiesti, in Prahova county. It exports over 200 brands in 30 countries.
In 2016, Alexandrion's net profit more than doubled to 19.1 million lei ($4.77 million /4.19 million euro), while turnover rose 25% to 149.6 million lei, data posted on the finance ministry's website showed.
(1 euro=4.5684 lei)