Nestlé to invest €102 million to expand its Girona plant producing Nescafé

Barcelona (ACN).- The Swiss multinational will build a new factory for Nescafé in Girona, where it has already an important plant that exports its products to more than 70 countries. Nestlé will invest €102 million in the project and the new facilities should be operational by the end of 2017, explained the company's Director General for Spain, Laurent Dereux. It will become the most important plant in Europe and its third-biggest in the world in terms of soluble coffee production capacity. The new factory will be built next to the existing plant and will add 10,000 additional square metres to the compound, increasing its production capacity by 30%. It will replace the plant’s oldest production chain, which will not be dismantled as it could be useful in the medium term. The expansion will bring some 40 new jobs to the Catalan plant.

Between 2007 and 2014, Nestlé invested €236 million in Girona and created 300 jobs, figures that will substantially grow with the project announced this Thursday. There are currently 700 people working at the Catalan plant. By the end of 2017, the facilities should be able to produce 30,000 tons of soluble coffee. Almost all the production will be exported. Besides Nescafé, the plant also produces the Dolce Gusto capsules. In the last few years, the production lines of this last product have been upgraded and new staff have been hired, coinciding with the success of automatic coffee machines.

Between 2015 and 2017, Nestlé will invest €102 million to build a new factory for Nescafé. 300 jobs related to the construction work will be created. The new building will add 10,000 square metres to the already existing 200,000 square metres. Preliminary work has already started to prepare for the construction, which is set to begin once the definitive administrative authorisations are ready.

Girona will become one of Nestlé's main factories in the world

Currently, the plant can produce 23,000 tons of soluble coffee per year. After the expansion, its capacity will have increased by 30%, reaching 30,000 tons per year. With this upgrade, the Girona plant will become Nestlé's third-largest in the world, coming very close to the biggest, located in Brazil and Mexico, explained Technical Director for Spain Miquel Serra. Nestlé has a total of 30 factories distributed worldwide, 6 of which are in Europe.

After the investment, Girona will become one of the main plants of the group, and the main one in Europe, highlighted Serra. According to him, the Catalan plant's "competitiveness" and "credibility" have been the decisive reasons behind the decision to allocate €102 million to expand it. Nestlé’s activities in Girona already started in 1968 and the factory received a great boost in 2009 when it started to produce the Dolce Gusto capsules.

Nestlé Spain is based in Greater Barcelona

Nestlé Spain, which also covers Portugal, is based in Esplugues de Llobregat, a town next to Barcelona municipality and the Diagonal business district. Laurent Deureux also announced that the company will concentrate its staff working in its Greater Barcelona headquarters into a single building, as they currently occupy two. Nestlé will invest €9 million in the redistribution and will keep the second building as an asset, putting it on the office rental market. In 2014, Nestlé Spain posted a €2.1 billion turnover (€2,102 million), 0.9% more than in 2013. During the same period, its exports increased by 0.3%.