Kazakhstan. The Almaty region, a village by the river. Our special correspondent, Alexey Nevsky. The Knauf Gips Kapchagay plant located here was visited on June 17th by a group of journalists from the leading Russian construction mass media. This visit was one of the programmed press tours organized by the International Knauf Group of the company’s plants in the CIS countries. It should be clarified that in Kazakhstan, the German company now owns only 60%, whereas the remaining 40% is owned by the German government through the German Investment and Development Company (DEG). Therefore, the full name of the enterprise is: Limited liability partnership “Knauf Gips Kapchagay, an enterprise with the participation of DEG Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbh”.Located 50 km from the former capital of Kazakhstan, Alma-Ata, the enterprise has been successfully working under the name of the German brand since 2001 and produces dry construction mixes, gypsum plasterboard and metal profiles. 254 employees work on the production lines in 3 shifts. As the CEO of the plant (to the left of the photo), Alexander Efimenko, told journalists, about 25 million euros in total was spent on the reconstruction of the enterprise.
The investment was used to build, in fact, a new plant, the largest in Central Asia, which in Nov 2004 started turning out high-quality product for Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The enterprise has its own source of raw materials, receiving natural materials from Plaster Combine LLP (Kazakhstan, Taraz). As the head of the plant noted, the enterprise ended last year with excellent results that can't be revealed at present.The instability of the ruble and the stability of the local currency has created difficulties in marketing, but, anticipating this, the management of the plant changed their sales policy last year. They turned towards small sellers, having come also to construction markets, where the main buyers are entrepreneurs. This has allowed the plant to operate successfully this year, though it has been necessary to lower the prices of some types of product. “Whatever the situation on the market, we will manufacture products of traditional quality and offer charity to help employees in the acquisition of housing, the children of employees, to support veterans”, said Alexander Efimenko in conclusion.
They turned towards small sellers, having come also to construction markets, where the main buyers are entrepreneurs. This has allowed the plant to operate successfully this year, though it has been necessary to lower the prices of some types of product. “Whatever the situation on the market, we will manufacture products of traditional quality and offer charity to help employees in the acquisition of housing, the children of employees, to support veterans”, said Alexander Efimenko in conclusion.
