Lithuanian Woodworking Giant VMG Group Stops All Business In Belarus

Plant in Mahiliou doesn't work, investments in the Vitebsk FEZ are stopped.

Lithuanian woodworking giant VMG Group stops all business in Belarus. Plant in Mahiliou doesn't work, investments in the Vitebsk FEZ are stopped, according to the BNS Lithuanian new publisher.

The question of what to do with Belarusian assets is under discussion. They were producing goods for IKEA in Belarus. On March 4, IKEA announced the suspension of imports and exports with Belarus and Russia.

VMG WoodArt was created in 2018 together with project partner Swedish furniture trading group IKEA. VMG then announced that it plans to invest about 80 million euros in the company and create about 600 jobs.

In 2018, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development gave the VMG Group a loan of 50 million euros for a plant development project in the Mahiliou region. Then it was reported that more than 200 new jobs will be created after its implementation, and the total number of employees will exceed 1.7 thousand people.

Last year, VMG Group's sole shareholder, Sigitas Paulauskas, told BNS that the group plans to expand its Belarusian plants in 2022.

VMG Group owns a factory for the production of particleboards, furniture and glued wood parts in the Mahiliou Free Economic Zone (FEZ), and a plant for the production of solid wood furniture in the Vitebsk FEZ.

VMG Group owns 27 companies with more than 5,000 employees.