Latvia's largest bakery, Hanzas Maiznica, has reported a first half year turnover of lats 5.8 million (€8.7m), an increase of 10 per cent on the same period last year.
Although the company said it could not give any indication of profits, it did say that the driving force behind the increase in sales was attributable to a 29 per cent increase in export sales, which are focused on the Estonian and Finnish market, the Baltic News Service reported.
Meanwhile Lithuania's leading bread and pastry producer, Vilniaus Duona, reported a jump in production of 2.3 per cent to 22,400 tons for the first of its financial year. However, reflecting the competitive nature of the market at present, the company also said that revenues of litas 41 million (€11.9m) remained unchanged compared to the same period last year.
The Finnish-owned company which has 99.5 per cent of its sales in Lithuania said that it predicts revenues for the full year will remain unchanged at litas 81.6 million.
Another leading Finnish-owned bakery group in Lithuania, Fazer Gardesis, reported sales of litas 14.5 million (€4.2m) for the first six months of this year, one-fourth more than sales in January-June 2003.
Currently the company supplies around 10 per cent of all bread sold in Lithuania but with production capacity set to double after two new production lines are opened later this year, that market share is expected to increase significantly, providing a positive effect on end of year results.
The company forecasts a turnover of lits 32 million this year, an increase of a third compared to 2003.