Wielton keeps on truckin'

Wielton, Poland's leading producer of trailers and one of the top 10 in Europe, will debut on the Warsaw Stock Exchange this autumn. Although the amount of funds the company wants to acquire has not yet been revealed, the proceeds will be used to strengthen its presence abroad and to expand its production capacity and its network of service outlets.

Wielton already has subsidiaries in Russia and Ukraine, as well as established distribution networks in Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. Company officials said they see great potential for development of the trailer market in the region.

"The total number of trailers registered in CEE is 400,000 as compared to over two million in Western Europe," said Wielton's president, Włodzimierz Masłowski. "Currently 50 percent of our total production goes abroad. We want to raise this share," he added.

In order to raise production, the company plans acquisitions, and does not rule out a greenfield investment.

"We are at the stage of analyzing various options at the moment, both in Poland and abroad," said Masłowski. Meanwhile, the company has applied for inclusion of its existing plant in Wieluń in the Łódź SEZ, hoping to make use of EU funding.

Radosław Łukaszczuk from brokerage Millennium DM predicts that the demand for Wielton's trailers will grow.

"The sector of delivery transport in Europe is developing, with a 10-percent annual rise on average," he said, adding that the firm's focus on foreign markets is a good thing, although the unstable political situation in countries such as Russia and Ukraine may worry potential investors.

Last year brought the company zł.280 million in revenues and just zł.8 million in net profit, while H1 2007 earned Wielton zł.181 million in revenues and zł.19 million in net profit.