The Viro sugar factory (), commonly referred to as just Viro, is a
sugar refinery
A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or sugar extracted from beets into white refined sugar.
Cane sugar mills traditionally produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it color ...
based in
Virovitica
Virovitica () is a Croatian city near the Hungary, Hungarian border. It is situated near the Drava river and belongs to the historic region of Slavonia. Virovitica has a population of 14,688, with 21,291 people in the municipality (census 2011). I ...
, Croatia.
The refinery was originally built in 1980 and had the daily refining capacity of 4,000 tons of
sugar beet
A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...
.
Established as an independent company, it was briefly part of the PIK Virovitica agricultural company between 1984 and 1991.
In the 1990s the refinery experienced a steady decline in revenue and income which resulted in it being bought and re-bought several times in the late 1990s, before eventually being acquired by the Dutch company Cosun and shortly after that filing for bankruptcy in 1999, with debts totaling some 575 million
HRK.
After a period of internal restructuring the refinery's property was sold to two Croatian-based companies for 110 million HRK in 2002, after which the company was re-established as a
limited liability company
A limited liability company (LLC) is the United States-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability of ...
in September 2002.
The company's shares were listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange in April 2006.
The company had managed to successfully bounce back in the late 2000s and it became the biggest such refinery in Croatia, with a 37 percent market share in the local sugar refining sector as of 2007.
In April 2006, Viro's shares began to be listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange. The sugar factory will soon become the largest sugar refinery, which in 2007 had a 37% market share.
The company's shares were listed on the
Zagreb Stock Exchange
The Zagreb Stock Exchange or ZSE ( ) is a stock exchange located in Zagreb, Croatia. It is Croatia's only stock exchange. The exchange trades shares of Croatian companies, as well as bonds and commercial bills.
The ZSE was established in 1991 a ...
(ZSE) and included in the
share index CROBEX until September 2020.
The shares were delisted trading the ZSE in January 2024.
On 2 May 2020, although it was the most technologically advanced sugar factory in Croatia, although Virovitica was promoted as a "sweet city", Viro will no longer produce sugar from sugar beet and will not be this year's sugar beet campaign due to "business rationalization". There remains very little questionable possibility of sugar cane processing, the so-called "yellow campaign". Most workers will be laid off by management on severance pay (or minimum wage until the end of the year, with questionable status thereafter
[()]
''Željko Zadro: Virovitička šećerana se ne gasi, budućnost vidimo u preradi sirovog šećera i proizvodnji biološke šećerne repe''
Informativni centar Virovitica. 4. svibnja 2020. Pristupljeno 6. svibnja 2020.) or will retire if they have the conditions.
See also
*
References
External links
*
{{CROBEX companies
Food and drink companies of Croatia
Food and drink companies established in 2002
Companies listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange
Sugar companies
Croatian brands
Agriculture companies of Croatia
Croatian companies established in 2002
Agriculture companies established in 2002