Mondelez International announced plans to invest US$90 million in building a biscuit plant in the Kingdom of Bahrain to meet rising demand in the Middle East and Africa for its brands such as Oreo, Ritz and TUC biscuits.
The investment is part of the company’s on supply-chain reinvention expected to deliver US$3 billion in gross-productivity savings, US$1.5 billion in net savings and US$1 billion in incremental cash over the next three years.
With full commercial production scheduled to start in early 2016, the planned facility will be the company’s most advanced manufacturing site in the Middle East and Africa, where demand for its biscuits has been growing at double-digit rates.
In the initial two- to three-year phase, the new plant will operate four biscuit-manufacturing lines with a total capacity of nearly 90,000 tons per year.
The company says this is the equivalent of about nine-times the weight of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.
“This investment in Bahrain is part of our ongoing supply-chain reinvention plan,” said Daniel Myers, executive VP, integrated supply chain.
“We’re implementing several such initiatives around the world to capitalize on growing demand, while also reducing costs and improving productivity. We’re pleased with our progress in regions, such as Mexico and India, where we’ve already begun to invest.”
The new plant will create about 300 direct jobs by the end of the initial phase and, through a multiplier effect, help sustain more than 1,000 people in the local economy.
Aimed at meeting demand in the Middle East and Africa for next 20 years, the facility has the potential to generate several hundred more direct jobs and sustain thousands of indirect jobs depending on future investment-decisions.
The Government of Bahrain is reclaiming the necessary land for construction of the new plant, with ground being made available to Mondelez International as early as December 2014.
The plot size of more than 250,000 sqm, which is the equivalent of 30 football pitches.
This is Mondelez International’s second, major investment in Bahrain, after having invested more than US$75 million in developing a Kraft Cheese and Tang powdered-beverage plant that has been operational since 2008.
With a production capacity of 110,000 tons per year, the existing facility employs more than 240 people and has injected over US$250 million in the local economy since construction through wages, and purchase of goods and services.
