AB Kauno Grūdai, an AB Linas Agro Group subsidiary, plans to invest EUR 32 million in expanding its instant foods plant in Alytus. It is expected that the Group’s instant foodproduction will almost double. The new capacity is planned to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2024, with an additional 250 to 300 employees.
In 2022, Kauno Grūdai produced and sold almost 255 million units of instant products. The planned capacity of the new production unit is 240 million units per year, including 120 million units of instant noodles and porridge in cups and 120 million units of instant noodles in packets.
“At the end of July, we announced plans to launch an instant foods plant in Kaišiadorys after reconstructing the former slaughterhouse of the Kaišiadorys poultry farm, at an investment of EUR 6.5 million. However, we see that the market demand for instant foods is much higher, so we have decided to expand immediately, increasing the expected production capacity and investment size. This investment is one of the stages of implementing our strategy to expand our business related to food production and processing of agricultural raw materials,” said Mažvydas Šileika, chief financial officer of AB Linas Agro Group.
AB Kauno Grūdai has two plants producing instant food – Kėdainiai and Alytus. The Kėdainiai plant, operating since 2011, annually produces and sells 105 million packets of instant noodles and 40 million cups of instant porridge. The plant in Alytus has been in operation since 2019 and currently makes around 120 million cups of instant noodles annually. A new plant of approximately 11,000 square meters will be built next to it. Kauno Grūdai will lease the land for the new plant from the State.
“We are at 100% capacity, and the market for instant products is growing, so we need to make the most of the opportunities as soon as possible. We will be building a second plant next to the existing one, but twice as big – production in Alytus will triple. We chose Alytus because of better prospects, more convenient management, and work organization: a team of highly qualified specialists has been working here successfully for several years; we will not have to rebuild it in another city, and everything will be faster and more convenient,” Andrius Pranckevičius, deputy chairman of the Board of Linas Agro Group and the CEO of AB Kauno Grudai, explains the motives for the decision to move the investment to another city.
More than 96% of the Group’s instant products are exported. The main export markets are the UK, the Scandinavian countries, and Southern and Western Europe.
