Standing on shaky legs

Polish furniture giant Forte reported a mixed bag of positive and negative results for the first three quarters of this year. On the positive side, the company announced that net sales earnings after nine months rose slightly from zł.280.7 million a year ago to zł.285.1 million this year. The value of Forte's assets also grew, from zł.383.8 million in 2004 to zł.409 million currently.

However, the Forte group's operational profits dropped from zł.20 million in Q3 2004 to zł.11 million for the same period this year. Its net profit almost halved, from zł.21.8 million a year ago, to zł.12.4 million through September 2005.

However, the company could dramatically change its figures before the year is out. Forte is about to complete its largest investment so far, the construction of a factory in Russia, which is due to start production before the end of the year. The investment cost EUR 9 (zł.35.8) million, and the firm says the factory will generate sales of EUR 20 (zł.79.5) million annually. The company's president, Maciej Formanowicz, said: "Profitability in Russia will be much higher."