Azerbaijan, Baku, June 16 / Trend N. Ismayilova /
The EBRD is providing a $2.5 million loan to TAJ LLC, one of the largest producers of water and soft drinks in Azerbaijan, owner of the popular Aqua Vita brand, to help the company increase its production capacity and improve efficiency, the EBRD said.
Established in 1997, TAJ LLC is a private locally-owned water and soft drinks company and one of the very few companies in Azerbaijan holding international standards quality certification. It sources its water from a spring in Khudat, 200 kilometres north of the capital Baku.
The EBRD financing will be used to purchase a new modern bottling-filling line at its production facility near Baku and help Aqua Vita separate the production of carbonated and non-carbonated drinks, as well as to redesign its packaging and labels, bringing them closer to international standards. The new bottling line will help the company increase bottling capacity from 38 million to 60 million litres annually.
The loan is an extension of the $4.5 million financing provided by the EBRD to Aqua Vita in 2006, which helped the company to almost double its sales.
"We are pleased to support Aqua Vita in its strategy to further improve the quality of its products and increase production efficiency. This project will also help the company improve its market position", Francis Delaey, Head of EBRD Resident Office in Azerbaijan, said.
Since the beginning of its operations in Azerbaijan, the EBRD has invested over $1.6 billion in various sectors of the country's economy.