Two plants of crucial importance for the economy of the northeastern Bulgarian city of Targovishte are shutting down.

LVK Vinprom, a leading Bulgarian producer of high quality wines and high-alcoholic drinks, has shut down due to a suspended license.

According to Ana Solarova from the press center of Bulgaria's Customs Agency, LVK Vinprom's license was suspended on July 3 over systemic excise duty violations.

In Solarova's words the available quantities at the winery are being examined and once the irregularities are remedied, the license may be restored.

The plant closure leaves 300 people unemployed, the majority of them narrow specialists in winemaking.

In the autumn of 2011, a plant producing non-alcoholic beverages of the Coca Cola brand was closed.

According to a statement of the company, the plant stopped operating as part of a plan to consolidate production infrastructure, thereby boosting efficiency and optimizing costs.

The company said that it had shifted production volumes from its unit in Targovishte to the one in Kostinbrod.

The firm vowed to offer 30 permanent and over 32 seasonal jobs at the Kostinbrod plant and a number of other units of the company, adding that the workers who would lose their jobs would be paid higher compensations that the ones provided by law.

The company explained the plans to restructure its production infrastructure with the decreasing purchasing power of the population and the overall decline on the market of non-alcoholic beverages in Bulgaria in the past three years.

The two plant closures in Targovishte will result in 600 layoffs.

The city will depend on two plants to keep its economy going - a plant for car batteries and one for flat glass.

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