President Sargsyan visits Saranist glass container plant

YEREVAN, November 29, / ARKA/. Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan travelled last Saturday to central province of Kotayk to visit a glass container factory Saranist. The president took a stroll around the modernised plant and was told about the production process.

The company has invested a total of $44 million in upgrading production lines, including a $3 million loan provided by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Its director general Vardan Manukian told the journalists that it has been operating without a break for the last 20 years selling its products both to Armenian companies and also to Georgia and some European countries.

Arsen Ghazarian, chairman of the Union of Armenian Industrialists and Businessmen, said Saranist is the largest company in the region of its type manufacturing products which meet all European standards.

The plant was built in 1989. It sells its products- glass containers and bottles for juice, non-alcoholic and strong alcoholic drinks to 75 local and 25 foreign companies. Some 40% of the output is sold outside Armenia. Last year the company earned 4 billion Dram from sales of its products. After commissioning a new workshop that was modernised by a Chinese company the plant hopes to increase sales by 800 million Drams.

This November the company has accomplished a recurrent modernization program that was started a year ago. Now it can produce glass containers that were not produced earlier in the country. In 2010 October the plant launched a special line for production of polyethylene film to meet growing domestic demand for packaging materials. The plant employs 450 workers whose average wage is 120,00 Drams. -0-