Philicon - 97 AD (Bulgaria)

Philicon-97, incorporated as a management-employee buyout in 1997, manufactures a line of processed food products, which it markets internationally to the food service and retail supermarket industries.
In March 1998, Philicon-97 acquired a 67% in local food processing company Plovdivska Konserva for USD 2.0 million.
The buyout firm, comprising 93% the company employees and led by Plovdivska Konserva's general manager Boris Kalibatsev, paid 10% of the price immediately in cash and pledged to cover the rest in the next eight years with one-year grace period.
Under the contract, the buyer vowed to invest another USD 400,000 in the next three years.
The company's principal products include tomato paste, tomato ketchup sauces, sterilised fruit and vegetable foods, natural fruit juices, jellies as well as rose products like rose juice and jam.
Philicon-97's sterilised foods and tomato products are marketed under the Philicon brand name, its fruit juices are sold under the Fresh brand while the company's rose juice is marketed under the Rose Elixir brand name.
The firm, based in the country's second-largest city Plovdiv, exports its production to over 30 countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Philicon-97 claimed 15% of the local canned food market in 2006.