FDBusiness.com

Nestle will invest more than SFr38 million (Eur33m) to double pet food production at its Purina PetCare factory in Russia’s Kaluga region. The investment in the new manufacturing building at the factory – located in the village of Vorsino – follows the installation of a new production line earlier this year.

Creating around 60 new jobs, it will enable the factory to produce almost the entire range of Purina pet food products for sale in Russia and for export to other Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. “With this latest investment, we expect to double wet pet food production within the next three years,” says Laurent Freixe, executive vice president for Nestle and head of Zone Europe.

Nestle Purina PetCare offers a wide range of pet food products inRussia, including Friskies, Darling, Felix, Gourmet, Pro Plan, Dog Chow, and Cat Chow. The company opened its first local factory in Vorsino in 2007 to produce its Friskies and Darling brands.

In 2009, Purina expanded the factory with an investment of more than SFr29 million to produce wet pet food under the Friskies brand. Earlier this year, it opened both a new production line and a new distribution centre at the Vorsino site. The distribution centre was built with an investment of almost SFr15 million, and employs around 50 local people.