Mölnlycke confirms its presence in Liege
For twenty-one years, the Liege-Waremme Mölnlycke plant has been constantly reinforcing its production capacities. High productivity, location close to major European markets and a positive social climate have now convinced the Swedish management to concentrate its production of clinical drapes in this plant. This decision, taken in December 1995, is based on the willingness to rationalize the manufacturing of its clinical products and the search for improved competitiveness.
This latest move builds on previous investments (a sterilisation unit and European distribution centre) and was further motivated by the fact that high productivity compensates for Belgian high salary costs and the strong currency. Mölnlycke, which is specialized in clinical products, tissues, incontinence care and other products such as baby diapers or feminine hygiene products, first decided to build a plant in Liege in 1975. Since then, it has continued to invest in the Liege unit which rapidly became a key factor in the international development of the company. Between 1990 and 1995, Mölnlycke invested 800 million Belgian francs (27 million US$) in this plant.
The position of Liege-Waremme, which was already the largest unit of the clinical products division in terms of revenues and responsibilities, will once again be reinforced as a result of the recent decision.
AUSA, making waves at the Liege river port
AUSA is a Spanish company involved in the cold working of special steels. The group as a whole distributes its highly technical products to all sectors of industry, automobile, tool-making, aeronautics, etc. in Europe (especially in Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands and Germany).
On 21st December 1995 AUSA acquired a concession at the Liege river port, enabling the company to develop its activities in Europe. This site has been chosen mainly for its geographical location and the multimodal communications network including river transport (Liege river port is the third largest in Europe) and sea connections.
This is important since AUSA implements "just in time" logistics and targets Central and Eastern Europe.
ITM gets a bigger foot in Belgium
In January 1996 the French "ITM Entreprises", a major European food company, decided to set up a distribution centre in Liege-Villers le Bouillet which will provide a daily supply to all the "Intermarché" supermarkets of Belgium. The activity will consist of the receipt, storage and preparation of orders, and the transport of fresh and dried foodstuffs. The area will cover 34.000 m2 and is due to open in June 1996.
The total investment will amount to 580 million Belgian francs (about 20 million US$).
Nordifa: more investments to come
Nordifa's initial investment in Liege was 50 million Belgian francs (1.7 million US$). As everything has been working well, the Liege unit received 70 to 80% of the group's total investment in 1993. They are now planning to make further investments in the years 1997 to 1999 as a result of the good signs of the market development. An investment plan has been made up for an amount of 150 to 200 million Belgian francs to extend the existing installations.
