SKARBIMIERZ, POLAND — Mondelez International continued its strategy of creating a global “best-in-class integrated supply chain” by opening a new $30 million chocolate production line in Skarbimierz. The new line will capitalize on growing demand in Mondelez’s European confectionery business, the company said.
“We strongly believe in the growth opportunities in Europe’s snacking market,” said Jurgen Leisse, president of Central Europe for Mondelez International. “As Poland’s market leader in biscuits and chocolate, we know that maintaining our competitive advantage requires best-in-class manufacturing technology, such as the ‘Line of the Future’ introduced today.”
The new line is expected to increase capacity, operate more efficiently and offer greater flexibility through its modular design, Mondelez said.
The new line is a first within the company’s manufacturing network in Poland and only the second in Central Europe. Mondelez said the investment will support the growth aspirations of the company’s chocolate and biscuit categories by enabling production of innovative snacking product formats for brands such as Milka, Oreo, Cadbury and Terry’s Chocolate Orange, as well as the local Polish brand 3Bit.
This is the first major investment in the Skarbimierz facility since its opening in 2010. The products from this plant are sold in domestic and international markets. The investment builds on Mondelez International’s earlier investment of $15 million to establish a global research and development center in the Wroclaw area.
Mondelez Poland has operated in the Polish market for 23 years. Its portfolio includes snacking brands such as Milka and Alpen Gold chocolates, Prince Polo wafers, 3Bit candy bars, Milka, Oreo, belVita, Petitki, Lubisie, Delicje, San and Lakotki biscuits and Halls candies. The company has seven manufacturing sites in the country. The plants in Jankowice, Bielany Wroclawskie and Skarbimierz produce chocolate products.
Skarbimierz is also home to a chewing gum plant. Plants in Jaroslaw, Cieszyn and Plonsk produce biscuits and wafers. The company employs approximately 3,300 people in Poland.
Earlier this year Mondelez said it would invest $130 million to install four manufacturing lines, dubbed “Lines of the Future,” at the company’s Americas production facility in Salinas, Mexico. The new lines are expected to be completed by the middle of 2016 and will replace nine older, inefficient manufacturing lines at the company’s Chicago biscuit plant.