Hungarian bakery chain, Fornetti, opened its first exhibition bakery in Bulgaria last week and added four additional stores since then. The company also plans to complete the construction of a new plant in Ukraine, with 600-tonne monthly capacity, in 18 months.

Works on Fornetti's the second Ukrainian production base already started, founder and owner József Palásti told business daily Napi Gazdaság on Thursday. He added that the franchise's Romanian unit is more profitable than the Ukrainian and Serbian subsidiaries. Sales of the company in Romania grew by 20% on average in the past years and Fornetti plans to set up two logistics bases in order to meet growing demand. The projects will cost EUR 1.3 m each.

Since Croatian sales are also on the rise, Fornetti has started to build a EUR 1.5 m logistics base near Zagreb, Palásti said, adding that in Spain they were building up their presence in theme parks and multiplexes.

Fornetti Frozen Bakers Products and Trading Ltd was founded by master baker József Palásti in 1997. The company, which has remained a family oriented enterprise, established a successful franchise system in the last ten years. It also substantially increased the number of its partners, created a uniform appearance in its shops, and standardized the quality of its products and processes from manufacturing to baking.

The company has become Central and Eastern Europe's leading franchise company in the fresh-baked pastry sector. In 2005 Franchise Europe (the European Union's central franchise organization) ranked Fornetti No.3 on its list of 500 companies.

Production capacity of the eight Fornetti manufacturing plants, located in six countries, is nearly 7,000 tonnes per month. The plants contain automated and semi-automated manufacturing and logistical equipment based on the latest technology available.