Candlelit debut

Korona, the leader in the production and sale of candles in Poland, is planning to submit its issue prospectus to the Financial Supervisory Commission before Christmas, and hopes to debut on the stock exchange in February 2007.

"The prospectus is already written but we had to translate part of the material for our German shareholders. Now we are waiting for authorization," said Krzysztof Jabłoński, president of Korona.

Currently, a 50-percent stake in the company is held by TVV Treuhand und Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH and the other half is owned by Korona Verwaltung GmbH.

Korona, which produces 99 percent of its candles under the private labels of its customers, wants to raise between zł.30-40 million from the debut to invest in new machinery and its infrastructure. Some zł.5-6 million will go towards increasing the company's turnover capital.

Korona manufactures candles for the international retail chains Tesco, Lidl and Auchan, but 80 percent of its production is sold to Ikea. Candles produced under the Korona brand are a marginal activity for the company and Jabłoński says this is unlikely to change: "In Europe nobody has managed to launch their own brand of candles successfully. It's just too expensive."

Last year, the company started to use its own Biowax mixture for the production of candles. Biowax is a combination of natural oils and, according to the management, constitutes a great alternative to paraffin, which is becoming scarce and increasingly expensive. "Over the last three years, the price of paraffin has grown by 40 percent. Our answer is to turn to the vegetable-oils market," Jabłoński explained. He believes that, thanks to Korona's invention, the company is three years ahead of other firms in the sector, and stresses that every year Korona spends one percent of its revenues on R&D.

In the financial year 2005/06, which ended in June, Korona's sales revenues reached zł.131 million with a net profit of zł.9.4 million.