This year Bulmarket is celebrating its 25^th anniversary. A fourth century in which the group’s growth is visible and tangible. In order for the company to always keep up with the trends, but also to anticipate them, our policy has always been for large-scale investments to create ever better services and products and to open new jobs in our community. Today we will share some of our development plans until 2022 that we are working on.

Restructuring of the companies in the group is underway. The newly registered “Bulmarket Group” will include all companies engaged in trade in mineral fuels and logistics – Bulmarket DM, Rail Cargo, Port Bulmarket, Bulmarket CNG, the companies operating in Romania. The production and trading of biodiesel will be concentrated under the umbrella of Astra Finance, which includes Astra Bioplant, Oleo Protein, Oberösterreichische Biodiesel, Hy Protein and others.

By the end of 2022, the companies of the group will invest a total of 42 million euros in projects that are at different stages of implementation. 17 million euros will be invested in the production of biofuels, and over 8 million euros will be invested in rail transport. More than 9 million euros have been earmarked for the LVZ project, which envisages turning the former plant into a high-tech park and a base for the repair and production of wagons.

Bulmarket plans to enter the international financial markets by making an IPO (initial public offering of shares) of Astra Finance. Investors are expected to be offered shares worth up to 25% of the capital, and the company will be listed on one of the stock exchanges in London, Amsterdam or Vienna. A world-renowned international bank was hired as a consultant.

In the next few months, projects to increase the capacity of enterprises of the group will be completed, with the annual production of biodiesel increasing from 300 to 360 thousand tons per year, and the production of pharmaceutical glycerin – from 10 to 25 thousand tons per year. A new plant for the pre-treatment of used kitchen oils with a capacity of 165,000 tons per year is under construction, pending the issuance of a building permit. Projects are underway for the distillation of plant organic liquids to fractions replacing petroleum derivatives at the Tegra base and for the distillation of biodiesel to obtain super clean biodiesel.

Bullmarket’s production group aims to increase production of second-generation biofuels by feeding 65% of its biodiesel production with residual/waste oil fractions – kitchen frying oils and used fats. Imports from China, Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia are relied on to provide the necessary raw materials, and for logistical needs a warehouse will be rented at one of the major Chinese ports.

Bulmarket Group aims to be the first Bulgarian company with an environmental social management (ESG) certificate – a sustainable investment strategy that binds three main pillars – Ecology, Social Commitment and Corporate Governance. With this, the company aims to fulfill in advance the regulations prepared by the EU for the environmental sustainability of production, services, businesses, as well as guidelines for the disclosure of corporate information, which are part of various measures with which the EC will support the achievement of the goals laid down in the Green Deal of the EU, the UN climate goals, the Paris climate agreement.