Ferrero North America, maker of Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Tic Tac and Kinder, has opened a new distribution center in Jonestown, Pa. The facility was designed to support Ferrero’s growth and integration of new brands, according to the company.
The 730,000-square-foot distribution center adds capacity for Ferrero North America’s recently acquired portfolio of former Nestle USA chocolate brands, including Baby Ruth, Butterfinger and Crunch. Over time, the facility also will distribute other Ferrero brands, the company said. The new distribution center will add 225 local jobs with 75 new positions in 2019 and an additional 150 jobs by the end of 2020.
“The new Jonestown distribution center will play an important role in our U.S. and North American growth plans,” said Paul Chibe, president and chief executive officer of Ferrero North America.
As part of Ferrero’s commitment to sustainability, the distribution center will include lithium-powered lifts as an energy and cost savings initiative, an energy-saving HVAC system and zero-waste-landfill practices to reduce environmental impact.
DHL Supply Chain North America manages the new Ferrero facility, providing services such as shipment consolidation, packaging, distribution and inventory management.
“We were immediately attracted to Ferrero’s vision for future growth and believed our proven processes to consistently deliver predictability and cost certainty uniquely positioned us to help them increase capacity and achieve that vision,” said Franklin Littleton, president of DHL Supply Chain’s North American consumer business. “The addition of this new facility is an exciting and critical step in continuing to deliver on Ferrero’s growth strategy as it will bring its products to the market with even greater speed and efficiency.”
By Rebekah Schouten
Source: Food Business News
Free-from is becoming much more mainstream, moving beyond food allergens and intolerances. While it’s still vital to innovate products for lactose intolerance, gluten allergies and so forth, the umbrella term of free-from has taken on many different meanings.
Arla Foods Ingredients (AFI) is targeting infant formula, sports nutrition and medical nutrition with its new patented milk fractionation technology that separates milk proteins from whey, bypassing the need to make cheese. The Denmark-based company says this move enables scientists, nutritionists and health professionals to create “next-generation” dairy products.
Located in Ma’anshan, Anhui province, the facility has the potential to produce an estimated 150 million litres of oat-based products annually at full capacity. The opening comes just a few months after Oatly – which claims to have established a new Chinese character for ‘plant-based milk’ – inaugurated its first Asian factory in Singapore.
