The Vetropack Straža glass factory achieved a total revenue of 680.04 million kuna in 2009, which is a decrease of 6.1 percent compared to the previous year, and a profit of 109.4 million kuna, or 1.1 percent less than in 2008, the company announced today.
Despite the decline in sales, Vetropack Straža finished 2009 with a good result, the company emphasizes. The poor economic situation and decline in overall consumption in Croatia and the region resulted in a decrease in demand for glass packaging in the markets of Vetropack Straža. In 2009, 859.5 million bottles and jars were sold (compared to 972 million in 2008), of which more than 60 percent was placed on export markets. A total of 214 thousand tons of packaging glass was produced (227.7 thousand tons in 2008). They note that investments continued throughout the past year.
A total of 56 million kuna was invested in equipping the production line, transporting sand, sorting glass cullet, storage facilities within the factory premises, and tools for producing jars. The warehouse for finished goods in the Slovenian Rogatec is nearing completion, which will be connected to the factory premises by the construction of a viaduct over the Sutla River and a road. Vetropack Straža d.d. is the only manufacturer of glass packaging in Croatia. This year marks 150 years of glass production in Humu na Sutli. It was founded in 1860 as a small forest glassworks producing bottles for a mineral water bottling plant in nearby Rogaška Slatina. Since 1996, it has been owned by the Swiss Vetropack.
