Coffee pot firm Bialetti targets higher EBITDA

MILAN, June 30 (Reuters) - Italian coffee machine maker Bialetti Industrie SpA (BIA.MI) approved a three-year business plan on Tuesday that foresaw a 37 percent rise in core profit, the company said.

Presenting the new plan by June was one of the conditions agreed between Bialetti, whose trademark mustachioed man graces its stove-top coffee pots, and its main creditor banks in an April standstill agreement.

The new 2009-2011 plan will allow the company to raise its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 26 million euros ($36.74 million) in 2011 from 19 million euros forecast this year.

Bialetti also aims to reduce its debt to 86 million euros at the end of the plan from 107 million euros at the end of 2009, it said in a statement.

The plan also calls in part for Bialetti to focus on strengthening its brand position in the coffee sector.

Bialetti is 63.5 percent owned by Chairman and Chief Executive Francesco Ranzoni and debuted on the Milan bourse in July 2007. It closed on Tuesday at 0.78 euro.

(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; editing by Simon Jessop)