Management of Rakhat comments on information published in Kazakhstan's press
13.03.15 17:55
/KASE, March 13, 15/ – Rakhat JSC (Almaty), whose shares are officially listed
on Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE), has provided KASE with the following
press-release:
quote
Recently, there was a number of news in Kazakhstan's press stating that more
than 500 employees of Rakhat JSC are on forced leave. This information has
been somewhat exaggerated and does not correspond to the real situation. The
company's management during a briefing session gave their comments on the
situation.
Since last year, the company's production facilities have been continuously
operating. Since the beginning of 2015 due to the sales slowdown the company
was forced to reallocate production volumes and move the planned repair of
several plants from the summer time to February in order for the staff to
perform other duties.
The company has signed a memorandum of social partnership closed between
Rakhat JSC, Almaty labor union and Medeu regional Akimat regulating relations
between employers and employees and defending the interests of employees.
Any company, any businessman shall tune its business in line with the current
market situation. Rakhat JSC operates on the basis of the approved budget, and
shall take all measures necessary for its implementation. For example, in order
to ensure the smooth functioning of the production process and avoid
overloading of warehouses and what is important, to ensure the competitiveness
of product prices as compared to the cheap prices offered by Russian producers,
the company had a number of advertising and marketing campaigns in the form of
discounts for certain groups of confectionery. In the second half of February of
this year, a program of anti-crisis measures has been developed and adopted
which plans to cut operating expenses and postpones some projects to a later
date.
It should be noted that despite the current economic situation, the company
still continues the project aimed at launching new additional production lines
in Shymkent. It is scheduled in September of this year to launch a new biscuit
plant and create 100 new jobs. The project in question is the first stage of
the investment project to organize the production site in Shymkent to make as
much as 50 thousand tons of confectionery products per year. With limited funds
available, we were happy to take advantage of the program voiced by the Head of
State and being implemented currently to support domestic producers in the form
of funding provided by Development Bank of Kazakhstan through commercial
banks at 6% per annum. This was a very timely and significant support to our
business.
In the last two months the sales slowdown compared to the same period last year
made more than 7%. In this situation, we can talk about redistribution of demand
towards cheaper goods – the consumer preferences are quite reasonable and
logical. Therefore, the company makes every effort to duly compete with Russian
producers. In order to solve our problems we are assisted by the business
support and development state programs; on the part of the National Chamber of
Entrepreneurs and Almaty Department of Entrepreneurs.
unquote
[2015-03-13]