Italian food company Barilla has plans to spend approximately €50 million (US$56 million) on an upgrade of the world’s largest dry pasta manufacturing facility in Italy.
Located close to the city of Parma, the investment closely follows the €50 million the company designated to expand another plant which produces pasta sauces, also near Parma, earlier this year.
“The company is due to approve a first 32 million investment for the pasta plant in July,” Alessandro Spadini, director of the factory said to a group of journalists who recently visited the site as part of Barilla’s 140th anniversary.
The whole investment will be used to increase the capacity of the warehouse, in turn making it more efficient. According to company estimates, the plant could produce 350,000 tons of pasta this year.
The Barilla group reported total sales of €3.4 billion (US$3.8 billion) last year, which is a 2% increase compared with 2015. Pasta, ready meals and sauces accounted for more than half of its revenue. Bakery products made up the rest.
The company was founded in 1877 as a bakery shop in Parma, Italy by Pietro Barilla and is a privately held business, remaining in the fourth generation of Barilla family ownership and control through three brothers, chairman Guido Barilla, and two vice chairman Luca Barilla and Paolo Barilla.
Barilla group controls Barilla (multinational pasta maker), Mulino Bianco, Pavesi, Voiello, Alixir and Academia Barilla (Italy), Wasabröd (Sweden), Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico) trademarks.
Producing several different kinds of pasta, Barilla is the world’s leading pasta maker with 40-45% of the Italian market and 25% of the US market.
Source: Food Ingredients First
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