McCain Foods is to add a french fry production line at a factory in Belgium.

The Canada-based food group will install the line at its site in the town of Leuze-en-Hainaut in the west of the country. Local reports say the line will be operational in early 2018.

A McCain spokesperson confirmed the plans today (3 February) when contacted by just-food but declined to comment further. The spokesperson said McCain would be making a formal announcement on 14 February about the investment.

McCain acquired the Leuze-en-Hainaut site in 2013 when it bought potato products supplier Lutosa from PinguinLutosa – now renamed Greenyard Foods – in 2013.

In 2015, McCain announced the Leuze-en-Hainaut site would take on the production from a site 150km further north in Grobbendonk it had decided to close.

“Belgium remains a very strategic country for us,” the McCain spokesperson said today.

Earlier this week, McCain announced plans to cut jobs at a site in the UK