On the 24th of May, KNAUF co-owner and honorary Russian consul to Germany, Nikolaus Knauf, held a meeting with the interim governor of the Tula region, Alexei Dyumin. Regional ministers and officials from economy-related departments also took part in the negotiations, the company’s press office told Construction.ru.
In his speech, Alexei Dyumin was highly appreciative of KNAUF’s contribution to the development of the construction industry in the Tula region. He pointed out the demand among local builders for construction materials produced by the KNAUF company.
“The enterprise is one of the main “points of growth” of the Tula region’s economy. You introduce new technologies into production, and consistently develop and expand manufacturing. Your large-scale charity activities inspires respect. You can count on the Tula regional government’s support of your projects. I’m sure that we will continue our fruitful cooperation”, said the interim governor of the Tula region, Alexei Dyumin.
For his part, Nikolaus Knauf talked about the 20-year long history of investment and entrepreneurial activity of the company in the Tula region. He stressed that, “when we won the investment tender, the enterprise was ruined and the gypsum quarry required significant investment”.
“At present, we have a modern enterprise with the largest and most advanced gypsum mine”, said Nikolaus Knauf.
The total amount of investment in the enterprise’s development cost more than 17 bln roubles, and highly qualified personnel work at the enterprise and modern equipment has been installed.
However, due to the decline in the construction industry of Russia, the enterprise’s capacities are only half of what they could be, except for the production of gypsum partition blocks used in wall partitions.
Due to significant measures taken for production and business processes optimization, the enterprise has managed to maintain an annual turnover of 4 – 5 bln roubles over the past three years.
The enterprise is the key taxpayer in the region – in 2015 the company paid 460 m roubles in tax.
Over the course of the meeting, Nikolaus Knauf presented two new projects. The first concerns the production of Aquapanel cement slabs on the territory of the enterprise in Novomoskovsk. Because of the rouble’s decline, the company’s specialists are looking for opportunities to increase the localization of future manufacture.
The second project involves the fabrication of parts assembly for housing unit construction, both individual low-rise buildings and high-rises with 30 – 40 apartments.
