French-owned spices factory burns down in Romania

The Solina spices factory in Alba Iulia, one of the biggest in Romania, burned down on the night of Friday to Saturday. The factory was empty when the fire occurred. The cause of the fire is not yet known. The damage was total and it took the firefighters more than 30 hours to extinguish the fire. Over 100 firefighters participated in this operation. Solina Romania, the local subsidiary of French group Solina, said that it would transfer the factory's production to its other production units in Europe. However, the group plans to rebuild the factory and resume its operations in Romania, according to a press release issued on Sunday, quoted by Mediafax. The factory has over 250 employees and the company announced it would take all the measures necessary to ensure the security of their jobs. French group Solina bought the spices factory in Alba Iulia, previously named Supremia, from local entrepreneur Levente Hugo Bara, in early 2017. Solina Romania had a turnover of EUR 43 million and a net profit of EUR 2.1 million, in 2017, according to official data from the Finance Ministry. editor@romania-insider.com (Photo source: ISU Alba on facebook)