Bonduelle Opens €20 Million Italian Facility
French vegetable processor Bonduelle has opened its latest production unit at San Paolo d’Argon in Italy. With a production capacity of 20,000 tonnes of finished product, the facility is the largest in Europe dedicated to bagged green salad.
The plant has been completely rebuilt on the site of a former factory, which was totally destroyed by fire in February 2008. Particular emphasis has been placed on optimising flows, improving the environmental conditions of the critical areas and energy efficiency. It represents an investment of the order of Eur20m, produces 17,500 tonnes of salad and employs 250 people.
In 2008, Bonduelle was being supplied from three production sites in Italy – San Paolo d’Argon and Costa di Mezzate in Bergamo province, and Battipaglia in Salerno province. After the fire in February 2008, the San Paolo production was relocated to the Costa di Mezzate site 5 kilometres away, and to a new workshop set up in just a few months, 15 kilometres away at Lallio, on the outskirts of Bergamo.
These two sites have now been closed and the 26,000 tonnes a year of bagged green salad sold by Bonduelle on the Italian market are produced in the new San Paolo d’Argon plant and the Battipaglia plant, in the south of the country.
In Italy, the Bonduelle Group has a turnover of over Eur200m, of which Eur121m comes from fresh vegetables.
