ABU DHABI: Packaged food company Mondelez International is planning to build a $90m biscuit plant in Bahrain to reduce costs and meet growing demand for its biscuits, the US company said yesterday.
The maker of Oreo, Ritz and Cadbury chocolate aims to start full commercial production in early 2016, operating four manufacturing lines with an initial capacity of 90,000 tonnes annually. “This investment in Bahrain is part of our ongoing supply-chain reinvention plan,” Daniel Myers, Mondelez International Executive Vice President, Integrated Supply Chain, said in a statement. “We’re implementing several such initiatives around the world to capitalise on growing demand, while also reducing costs and improving productivity,” he said.
The company expects to deliver $3bn in gross-productivity savings, $1.5bn in net savings and $1bn in incremental cash over the next three years to help it improve its operating-income margin, the statement said.
The new plant will create about 300 jobs, the company said. Mondelez has already invested more than $75m in a Kraft Cheese and Tang-powdered beverage plant in Bahrain. Mondelez, formerly Kraft Foods, has operated in the Middle East for more than a century from its regional base Dubai.
Reuters
