Asconi invests as wine business grows
the largest eastern European producers of wines and spirits, is to
buy new grape processing and winemaking equipment for its Puhoi
winery to help it meet growing demand for its products.
The company, which is based in Moldova, said it would spend €1.2 million on the new machinery, which will help lift the grape processing capacity at Puhoi to 90 tons per hour and expand the fermentation and ageing capacity by a further 21,000 hectolitres.
"This acquisition will play an important role in substantially increasing our production of premium and super premium wines," said Constantin Jitaru, president and CEO of Asconi.
"This equipment represents an important part of our Puhoi winery renovation project, which will occur in time for the 2004 grape harvest season. The installations represent the latest improvements in winemaking technology and cover grape processing equipment, including crushers, pumps and vacuum pressers, as well as fermentation, filtration and storage facilities, including stainless fermentation tanks, filters and cooling units."
Jitaru claimed that once the installation of the new equipment was completed in June of 2004, winery would be the most technologically advanced in eastern Europe. For example, he said that the vacuum pressers were among the newest inventions in the winemaking equipment area, allowing for optimum variable extraction of juice from the grapes.
Asconi markets its products in 17 countries worldwide, and recently announced that it was to begin ice wine production from the 2003 harvest. Ice wine, a sweet dessert wine, is highly prized as it can only be made in a few countries worldwide (such as Canada and Austria) where the weather is cold enough for grapes to freeze on the vines.
The grapes are then picked and pressed while frozen, concentrating the juice and creating the unique sweet wine.
Jitaru said that grapes from approximately 30 acres were harvested in late November when the temperatures reached -5 degrees Celsius and sugar levels reached about 36 per cent, the optimal conditions for making ice wine.
Asconi is expecting full-year net profits for 2003 to reach $2.8-3.0 million on turnvoer of around $17-18 million, a 22-29 per cent increase on 2002 when revenues reached $13.95 million.
