With regards the Ukraine investment, the company said that it is part of a company-wide programme to install the latest high technology equipment in the dairy business in an effort to enhance productivity. Total investment in the equipment was put at over $13.3 million.
The Ukraine investment will include equipment made by Italian company ASMA, which has been installed for the bottling of milk products in plastic bottles (PAND) at the Kiev Dairy Plant. The equipment has a capacity of 15,000 bottles per hour and is capable of bottling products in 450g and 900g formats.
The company says it plans to use the equipment to provide new packaging for the product range under the Little House in the Village trademark. The same equipment will also be used to launch drinking yoghurts under the Chudo trademark. The total cost of this particular part of the project is said to exceed $6.1 million.
At the Kharkov Dairy Plant, WBD installed and launched a filling line for pasteurised dairy products packaged in 500g and 1,000g Tetra Brik Square containers, with a production capacity of six thousand containers per hour. The line, which cost $1.1 million, is also equipped with a device for the production and fitting of Flexi-caps and equipment for secondary packaging. The company says it plans to use this equipment for the launch of a new product range under the Happy Milkman trademark.
In addition, Wimm-Bill-Dann installed an ERCA-47001, made by French company Erca-Formseal, for the filling and packaging of cheese desserts. The $6.1 million line has a production capacity of three tons of finished products per hour and fills 125g and 200g tubs. The company says it plans to use the equipment for the launch of a new whipped cottage cheese product under the Frugurt brand and a fruit flavoured cottage cheese product under the Chudo brand.
"These investments were undertaken as part of a company-wide programme to modernise the production base across all of its operations," a company spokesperson said. "The current project is aimed at satisfying consumer demand and enhancing operating efficiency through the introduction of high technology to dairy production."
Meanwhile, the TASS agency report on the Tashkent investment has so far not been officially acknowledged by WBD. The report said that that WBD planned to become a majority shareholder in the Sut dairy plant, which is currently a representative of Uzbek state association Uzmyasomolprom, to which the plant belongs.
The report also said that key agreements have been struck and the deal will be finalised in the near future. Evidently WBD had already struck a preliminary agreement with Uzmyasomolprom back in July last year, which confirmed that it would invest some $7 million in the modernisation of the plant's facilities.
WBD has been undergoing a period of massive investment in the last couple of year. The investments have focused on upgrading the company's distribution system and plant equipment in the core Russian market, as well as making a number of key investments in neighbouring markets, with the company indicating Ukraine as being of particular importance to future expansion.