National Sugar Company's restructuring plan almost ready for presentation

Krzysztof Kowa, the president of sugar concern National Sugar Company (KSC), promised that by November the company's restructuring plan will be ready and be presented to the supervisory board for evaluation. He also promised to shorten the restructuring process from an earlier announced five to eight years down to two years. "The program prepared by the consortium of WGK and Proinvest is treated as a framework. It is the foundation for coming up with a detailed version, including the financial restructuring of the group, closing some sugar mills and finding investors for their assets," said Kowa. The two-year program will aim at reducing costs by 25-35%, which in turn should facilitate posting profits of zł. 50 million at the end of 2004/2005. "The biggest benefit of the our plan is the centralization of purchases and sales, which would substantially improve our bargaining power," said Kowa. In 2004 five sugar mills will be shut, with three more to go in 2005. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 11) M.M.