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This year, most of the orders are from Husqvarna. According to Rolandas Jackevicius, director general of KB Components, the new client, Swedish company Ostnor, one of the largest plumbing manufacturers in Scandinavia, is among the most prospective clients of the Kaunas-based company.

"We expect that this year orders from Ostnor and Husqvarna will contribute most to our revenue growth," Jackevicius said. The company began to get orders from Husqvarna following the purchase by KB Components of the Swedish factory Arevall Plast a couple of years ago. This resulted in the Swedish company's orders being transferred to Kaunas.

Following a management decision it was not only the bigger revenue generating orders of the gardening equipment giant Husqvarna that moved to Kaunas, but also part of the acquired Arevall Plast AB machinery. About 18 pieces of machinery for the production of plastic components were relocated from Sweden to the factory in Kaunas and installed in new production premises. Today the factory employs 110 people.

So far, KB Components has leased more than 6,000 square meters and last year an additional 5,000 square meters of adjacent premises were leased. The factory in Kaunas has invested LTL 1 million to adapt the premises for the production of plastic components. The company replaced flooring, installed proper lighting and other systems. Another LTL 1 million was used for plastic injection moulding equipment, robotic equipment and a crane. These pieces of machinery were installed in the newly leased premises.

The new premises also contain equipment that will be used for serial manufacture of plastic components in the near future; this will be a new venture for the company. KB Components spent LTL 4 million of the company's and borrowed funds for the acquisition of plastic injection moulding equipment for the new product. Currently the production line is being tested. While testing is in progress, the company is not revealing who the new customers will be or the type of equipment that will be produced. As a result of this expansion in production, KB Components has created 40 new jobs and spent about LTL 555,000 on training.

The Kaunas company specialises in the production of small batches of products where a lot of manual work is also required. According to the type of the orders, some machines operate at 100 percent capacity and some - 10 percent of capacity; robots are used on the machinery operating at 100 percent capacity. It is planned to invest a further LTL 2 million in equipment purchase next year.