Purina announces new investment in Southern Brazil

Nestlé announced its investment of an additional R$1.3 billion ($247M/€230M) in a new pet food facility which began construction in 2022 in Vargeão, Santa Catarina. 

This amount tops the R$1 billion ($190M/€177M) the manufacturer announced a year ago.

A spokesperson at Nestlé Brazil said the pet facility would receive a total investment of R$2.5 billion ($476M/€443M). 

GlobalPETS learned that the new plant will be fully operational by the end of 2024, a year later than originally announced in 2022.

Meeting the rising demand 

The new unit is expected to deal with the growing demand of domestic and foreign wet food markets for dogs and cats, consolidate the growth in Brazil, and expand exports in Australia and Mexico.

The company plans to invest CHF3 billion ($3.21B/€3B) until 2025 in production units in Thailand, China, and Brazil. 

“We have difficulties [meeting] the demand today, which is a reason why we have really ramped up the amount of capex that we are putting through,” said François-Xavier Roger, Nestlé’s Chief Financial Officer at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference.