BankWare Ltd. opens a plant for plastic cards

A plant for producing of plastic cards opens in Kjustendil, Bulgaria. With its new capacity BankWare Ltd. will cover all security requirements of MasterCard and Visa, which will give the company  the possibility to produce international financial cards.
The company was founded in 1991. In the beginning it used to deliver cards and machines for personalization from abroad. Its biggest client is Borica and almost all financial cards issued in Bulgaria, are being personalized on machines delivered and serviced by BankWare Ltd.
For 3 years now the company has been producing cards in Bulgaria – it has machines with capacity of 2 mln.cards per year. The financial cards the company produces are used only in Bulgaria, because BankWare Ltd. has no licence for international cards. Among its clients are 8 banks - Bulgarian National Bank, Central Cooperative Bank, Biochim, Post Bank and other. Among its biggest clients is Shell Bulgaria with cards for its Loyalty program. The company also exports for Romania, Greece, Albania, Slovenia, Poland and Switzerland.
Mr.Lachezar Petkanchin – the Director of BankWare Ltd. – agreed to tell more about the new plant for FORUM magazine.

Mr.Petkanchin, when will the plant open?
At the moment we are testing the machines. We expect the first orders in a month. After this we will start the process of certification – we will talk to Visa and MasterCard and in the middle of 2006 we hope to be producing international financial cards. May be first MasterCard and later Visa.

What is the size of the investments for the new plant?
Up to now it is about 300 000 Euro. The new working places which will be opened will be between 15 and 35. With the new machines we will have greater capacity. With the new ones will be produced up to 30 000 cards in a day.  At the moment the machines in Sofia make about 5000.

Up to 2 weeks BankWare Ltd. will put in operation its own new device for counting plastic cards. The devise is promised to be 3 times cheaper than the competitor’s Japanese models.

What will be the advantages for the clients?
The advantages will be great. The clients will have wider possibilities when market changes and when introducing new products, because our time for reaction will be cut down to 3 days. For comparison the  term for delivery from a foreign country to Bulgaria is minimum 6 weeks.  Also the prices will be 10-20 % lower.  Except this the advantages for the Bulgarian client will be that the payment will be made when the order is delivered. In the foreign countries they want 100% in advance. The level of security of the delivery will also be risen – from the plant to the client the order will be delivered by  an armoured cars. This is a MasterCard and Visa’s requirement, which unfortunately is not being observed – standard courier services are being used.
We already cover all the requirements for the international cards – separate building with a fence around it and video watching, very strict control over the access, full audit of the consummative from the beginning of the producing  of the card to the ready production.

What is the competitiveness on the Bulgarian market of cards?
For the moment our main competitors come from abroad, because, especially for the financial cards, there is no other possibility. At the moment there is no other licensed producer in Bulgaria and after us being licensed we will be established as leaders on the market with plastic cards.

Is there already an interest from clients in the new cards you will be producing?
There is an interest even from partners from foreign countries – two of the big European companies for producing of such cards is expected to transfer some of their orders to us. Our capacity is comparatively small, which gives us the advantage to be very efficient. Smaller printings are too non-efficient for the high capacity of the West. In the region we have many clients who are very fragmented and most of the orders are smaller than these of the West.

In which countries in the region you deliver? 
Most successful is our partnership with Romania and Albania. In Albania we hold almost the whole market, which is about 10% of the Bulgarian, which is a big success.  In Romania we have a lot of orders from cosmetic companies and Royalty cards for air companies. We also have orders from Slovenia.

In this context, do you have data about the volume of the market in Bulgaria?
It is difficult to say. For the financial cards the picture is clearer – about 3 mln. yearly. Of course this are not only absolutely new clients, but also ones with reissued cards. But even this lately the growth has been 20% annually.