Slovenian manufacturer Steklarna Hrastnik is to invest in its tableware unit and increase its output by a third.

The company plans a series of investments to increase its tableware output to up to 90 tonnes per day. It will buy a new decorative machine, completely renovate its decorative area and buy a new machine for the production of miniature and perfume bottles and automatic control line, all within its tableware unit.

It will also move its machines for the production of special bottles into the glass tableware unit.

It said the investments will take place within the next year and enable it to produce products with higher added value.

The company also plans to buy a more powerful machine that which will increase its packaging glass production capacity by 25 tonnes per day from the present 138 tpd to 163 tpd.

The extra capacity in this unit will be used only after modified environmental permits have been obtained.

The company’s Director General, Andrej Bozič, said the combined investment would amount to €7 million and would help the company become a more international business.

He said: "The changes will increase our technical equipment, capacity, flexibility and profitability of our production, since production in Slovenia is directed towards products of high added value of higher quality.

"The production segment, in which we are no longer competitive, will be moved, together with the machines, to a country where lower production costs will be achieved. This will enable us to improve our offer to existing customers and acquire new ones."

In its half-yearly financial report it said sales revenue for the first half of 2015 was €28.9 million which is 14% more than in the same period last year.

Operating profit before EBITDA was €6.5 million, a growth of 19% compared to last year.

It attributed the improved business results to an increase in production capacity of luxury bottles last year and the expansion of a range of higher added value goods.