Norwegian-owned Devold, a leading producer of knitted products, opened a new plant in Lithuania, which has been its base for fifteen years. Manufacturing and administrative facilities, warehouses and a factory story were established in a new 16000-meter factory located in the Panevezys FEZ.
Devold has produced high-quality wool clothing for more than 160 years, making the company one of the oldest manufacturers of knitted garments in Europe. The company shifted its production to Lithuania in 1998. Its success has been affected by various factors, such as investment in modern equipment, product design and marketing. Currently, Lithuania is the main production base, supplying more than ninety percent of Devold knitted fabrics.
“It would have been difficult to remain competitive in the Norwegian market, so we decided to move production from Alesund to Lithuania. Currently, our product design and development remain in Norway, but production is based Lithuania. We focus on the European market, so product distribution from Lithuania as a member of the EU is faster and more economical,” explained Tor Jonsson, Managing Director of UAB Devold.
[quote text=”Our factory needs 250 employees in Lithuania, about forty-five thousand units of various products are produced weekly. The factory is situated near Norway, so we can work together at every step–from yarn spinning, dyeing, and knitting to sewing, packing and shipping products to customers” name_surname=”Tor Jonsson” description=”Managing Director of UAB Devold” left=””]
The value of the investment in the new plant is over 13 million euro. The total project will reach over 17 million, ten of which being investment in real estate and machinery. Part of the sum needed, over a million euro, was funded by the EU’s support for the European Regional Development Fund and Lithuania’s budget.
According to the head of Devold, the new factory is designed in such a way so that future investments in additional modern equipment and the labour pool will increase its production capacity by more than half. “Our factory needs 250 employees in Lithuania, about forty-five thousand units of various products are produced weekly. The factory is situated near Norway, so we can work together at every step–from yarn spinning, dyeing, and knitting to sewing, packing and shipping products to customers, ” Tor Jonsson continued.
Over the past several years, Norwegian investors have found an appropriate niche in Lithuania. Overall, Norwegians are constantly boosting their investments in Lithuania, reaching 803 million euro last year. At present, 202 Norwegian capital companies are open in Lithuania, including 94 active ones which employ over eleven thousand specialists in various fields. In 2014, the total turnover of these companies was more than 1.5 billion euro. The new Devold factory located in Panevezys is one more example of Lithuania being an attractive country for foreign investment.
