In the next two years there will be one more Eastern European country joining the European Union – Bulgaria. This country has rarely been thought of as a major packaging producer; however, Bulgaria enjoys a unique range of local brands and a highly educated, low-salaried labor force. These attributes as well as the recent growth of both foreign and domestic investments in packaging, printing and converting equipment will help to bring the paperboard packaging industry of this country to a world level.
Bulgaria is gradually developing its own packaging market. Paperboard packaging is leading the way in terms of growth, with corrugated board dominating. With a current price of $450-$550 per ton (for both domestic and imported), corrugated is becoming a material of choice for struggling Bulgarian users and takes about 65% share in the market. Bulgaria produces about 160 million sq. meters of corrugated board annually. This is mostly 3-ply and 5-ply type with B, C, and E fluting. The key corrugated board exporters to Bulgaria are Turkey, Slovenia and Serbia, providing in general a higher quality material than domestic suppliers and satisfying about 5% of the market.
The major Bulgarian corrugated board and packaging producers are Trakia Papir S.A. in Pazardzhik and Dunapack-Rodina AD in Plovdiv (See Fig.6). The 60 years old Trakia Papir mill produces about 75-80% of the corrugated board production in the country, making own fluting, testliner as well as other types of secondary fiber packaging. The mill has gained ISO 9001 certification and presently employs nearly 800 people. The main corrugators at the mill supplied by BHS (Germany) and Artyoma KP-23(Russia). In 2000-2001 Trakia Papir upgraded its moisture control of paper and fine pulp screening systems with the help of Metso (Finland). The company produced slotted and die-cut packages on 5 converting lines from (Bobst, Curioni, and Martin).
Rodina, number two corrugated producer in the country, was founded in 1962. In 2002 Dunapack Group, paper holding from Hungary, acquired 98%of the shares and renamed the company to Dunapack-Rodina. Currently the mill makes single and double wall corrugated and micro corrugated board with B, C, E, BC and EC flutes. Dunapack makes about 15% of Bulgarian corrugated board packaging with application in food industry (boxes, displays, fruit and vegetable trays), cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. The company’s converting lines supplied by Simon, Martin, Bobst, Bini, CESEF and Schertler.
The largest Bulgarian integrated pulp and paper mill, Paper Factory Stambolijski (PFS), jointly owned (50/50) by EBBR (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and IFA (International Finance Corporation), is also involved in the production of corrugated board. The biggest mill of this kind in Balkan Peninsula (2004 turnover €41.2 million) is using the-state-of-art papermaking equipment from Metso, Ahlstrom and Andritz and exporting almost 85% of its production to 35 countries. In 2004 PFS produced over 70,000 tons of brown kraftliner and 18,000 tons of fluting.
There are also nearly 20 companies in Bulgaria producing corrugated board and packaging mostly from recycled fiber. The smaller corrugated board converters like Olim-M Ltd. (Sofia), KAM-919 EOOD (Plovdiv) and Chaika AD (Varna) are supplying about 4.5% of corrugated packaging. The rest of the industry is smaller shops with the capacity of less than 100 tons per month.
Some of these companies include:
- Scorpion-97 AD (Karnobat)
- PKI Zora (Razgrad)
- Grand OOD (Rudozem)
- Aspen OOD (Sofia)
- Lia Pak OOD (Sofia)
- Bouna-Borislav Kazakov ET (Dryanovo)
The Bulgarian economy has shown a more positive acceptance of liberal market reforms than many of its developing neighbors in the Soviet Block. While the size of the country’s packaging market does not attract much attention, its location, friendly business policies and skilled professionals make it a very attractive destination for foreign investors.