AB Kauno Grudai, an AB Linas Agro Groupsubsidiary, plans to invest EUR 32 million in expanding its instant foods plant in Alytus. It is expected that the Group's instantfoodproductionwill almost double. The new capacity is planned to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2024, with an additional 250 to 300 employees.
In 2022, Kauno Grudai produced and sold almost 255 million units of instant products. The planned capacity of the new production unit is 240 million units per year, including 120 million units of instant noodles and porridge in cups and 120 million units of instant noodles in packets.
'At the end of July, we announced plans to launch an instant foods plant in Kaišiadorys after reconstructing the former slaughterhouse of the Kaišiadorys poultry farm, at an investment of EUR 6.5 million. However, we see that the market demand for instant foods is much higher, so we have decided to expand immediately, increasing the expected production capacity and investment size. This investment is one of the stages of implementing our strategy to expand our business related to food production and processing of agricultural raw materials,' said Mažvydas Šileika, Chief Financial Officer of AB Linas Agro Group.
AB Kauno Grudai has two plants producing instant food - Kedainiai and Alytus. The Kedainiai plant, operating since 2011, annually produces and sells 105 million packets of instant noodles and 40 million cups of instant porridge. The plant in Alytus has been in operation since 2019 and currently makes around 120 million cups of instant noodles per year. A new plant of approximately 11,000 square meters will be built next to it. Kauno Grudai will lease the land for the new plant from the State.
'We are at 100% capacity, and the market for instant products is growing, so we need to make the most of the opportunities as soon as possible. We will be building a second plant next to the existing one, but twice as big - production in Alytus will triple. We chose Alytus because of better prospects, more convenient management, and work organization: a team of highly qualified specialists has been working here successfully for several years; we will not have to rebuild it in another city, and everything will be faster and more convenient,' Andrius Pranckevicius, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Linas Agro Group and the CEO of AB Kauno Grudai, explains the motives for the decision to move the investment to another city.
More than 96% of the Group's instant products are exported. The main export markets are the UK, the Scandinavian countries, and Southern and Western Europe.
AB Linas Agro Group owns the Baltics' largest agri-food production group that operates along the entire food production chain from farm to fork. The company's subsidiaries produce, process, market agricultural and food products and provide goods and services to farmers. Their overall headcount was 4.9 thousand at the end of January.
The financial year of AB Linas Agro Group commences on 1 July. The company's consolidated revenue for the financial year 2021/2022 was close to EUR 1.9 billion, and its net profit was EUR 77 million.
More information:
Mažvydas Šileika, CFO of AB Linas Agro Group
Mob. +370 619 19 403
E-mail m.sileika@linasagro.lt
