23 September 2002
Brestgazoapparat reports $25-million production development expenditure in last five years

 Brestgazoapparat has spent about $25 million on the modernization and development of its production facilities in the last five years, Yevgeny
Sergiyenko, deputy technical director of the Brest-based Belarusian-Russian company, told reporters in Minsk last week.
Brestgazoapparat, which owns the trademark of Gefest, is controlled by Russia's Gazprom. The enterprise specializes in the manufacture of gas, electric and combined types of stoves.
According to Mr. Sergiyenko, Brestgazoapparat currently manufactures 42 models and 114 modifications. The average annual output is 510,000 stoves. As many as 350,000 stoves were produced in the first 8 months of 2002. More than 70 percent of the output is exported. In the first 8 months, exports rose by 9.7 percent year-on-year and totaled more
than $40 million. The main sales agent in external markets is a distribution network including about 50 wholesalers, through which the
enterprise sells nearly 90 percent of its total output. The network comprises 32 Russian wholesaling companies. Apart from that, a certain amount is exported to Germany, Poland, CIS and Baltic countries, Mr. Sergiyenko said. Lyudmila Astapova, deputy director general for economy and finance, noted the company's stable financial position. According to her, one of the main problems is limited
production space, that is why the Brestgazoapparat has to search for additional areas exteriorly. In 2001, the company started a plant to manufacture and process glass, which made it possible to alter stoves' designs. In August 2002, Brestgazoapparat acquired a production facility with a total area of 22,000 square meters. In this building, the
company intends to manufacture a new kind of products, which is kept secret. "This will be an absolutely new product," Ms. Astapova noted.