Barry Callebaut has set a target of trebling sales in Russia within three years after opening a EUR25m (US$34.9m) factory south of Moscow.
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The Swiss chocolate producer unveiled the site – in the town of Chekhov, 60km south of Moscow – yesterday.
The company’s sales quadrupled between 2000 and 2005 and it hopes the new facility will further accelerate that growth.
Callebaut CEO Patrick De Maeseneire said: “Russia will be our key target market in Eastern Europe. Russian consumers love chocolate. With a per capita chocolate consumption of 4.4kg a year, Russian consumers eat more chocolate than people in France, which is a traditional chocolate country.”
De Maeseneire said Callebaut’s outsourcing deal with Nestlé would give the Chekhov site a good base to work from. “The pan-European supply agreement with Nestlé, which also includes deliveries in Russia, will give us a good base capacity utilization.”
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By GlobalDataSome of the production that was previously produced in Callebaut’s factory in Poland and exported to Russia will now be transferred to the new facility.
Callebaut said the free capacity in Poland would be used to serve rising demand for chocolate products in other Eastern European countries and the Baltic states.
