Unilever has outlined plans to spend EUR100m (US$135.9m) on boosting its ice cream production in Russia.
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The consumer goods giant, which bought Russia’s largest ice cream maker, InMarko, earlier this year, is to build a new site in the town of Tula.
Unilever already has a smaller ice cream production facility in Tula, as well as two other sites in Novosibirsk and Omsk. The company believes the new plant, which will create 400 jobs, will “substantially increase” its ice cream production in Russia in volume and technological terms, a Unilever spokesman told just-food today (15 October).
The Anglo-Dutch conglomerate has also lined up the new Tula facility to make a range of ingredients for other brands. The site will be used to produce dressings for Unilever’s Becel and Calvé brands and ingredients for products like Knorr.
The move will help Unilever boost the national distribution of its ice cream products, which include the Ekzo and Magnat brands, and build on InMarko’s historically strong positions in central and eastern Russia.
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By GlobalDataThe spokesman said that ice cream made at the facility will be primarily for the Russian market but he added that the site could serve as a production base for exports to the Ukraine and Belarus and further into Eastern Europe.
