Froneri, the ice-cream venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners, is investing €30m ($34.1m) to add new production lines at a plant in Germany.

With a view to increasing manufacturing capacity at the site in Osnabrück in the north-west state of Lower Saxony, Froneri said the investment will lay the “groundwork for further growth” in private-label and branded ice creams.

On the branded side, a new automated production line will be added for Mövenpick ice creams in family pack formats.

In a statement, Froneri said the additional lines will be ready for operation “in time for the 2027 ice cream season and will significantly increase the production capacity of the Osnabrück site”.

Just Food has asked Froneri for more details on the predicted capacity increase numbers and how many production lines will be added for both own label and branded products.

Dr. Gotthard Kirchner, who heads up Froneri’s German business, said: “With this investment, we are sending a clear signal regarding Germany as a business location and laying the foundation to reliably meet the growing demand from our trading partners in the future.

“At the same time, we are making targeted investments in one of our strongest brand portfolios and sustainably expanding our production capacities.”

Froneri added Mövenpick family packs are the “second-largest ice-cream segment in the German food retail sector” behind stick formats.

In terms of private-label ice cream, the company said: “Additional production lines increase the plant's flexibility and capacity, making it possible to meet the retail sector's growing demand even more effectively in the future.”

Froneri said it operates more than 30 production facilities globally, including 20 in Europe and two in Germany. Osnabrück is joined by the second plant in the town of Uelzen.

In February, Nestlé emphasised its commitment to the joint venture with PAI Partners as the Swiss group announced it would exit the rest of its ice-cream business not centred on the partnership.

Nestlé entered the 50-50 venture with PAI Partners in 2016 when the food major merged its European ice-cream operations with UK-based R&R Ice Cream, which was owned by the investor.

Under the initial joint venture, Nestlé’s and R&R’s ice-cream operations in Europe, the Middle East, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, the Philippines and South Africa were combined. While the US and Israel were not included in 2016, three years later the latter was also pulled under the Froneri umbrella. Nestlé then sold its US ice-cream operations the same year to the venture.

In October, PAI Partners restructured its shareholding in Froneri with a minority investment from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

ADIA, which invests on behalf of the Abu Dhabi government, acquired a minority, undisclosed portion of PAI Partners’ 50% share via a wholly-owned subsidiary as a co-investor with the private-equity firm.