Meat processor starts building meat cutting plant in Poland
The investment is to create at least 100 new jobs, and allow the firm to intensify its efforts to expand its export sales.
"The launch of the new facility is scheduled for the beginning of the second quarter of 2016," Ewa Mielnicka, the company’s spokesperson, told local news weekly Tygodnik Ostrołęcki.
JBB is based in Łyse, a municipality located about 160 km from Poland’s capital Warsaw, and it has been operating under its current name since 1992.
Operated by an initial workforce of 20, over the years, the company has expanded to about 1,300 employees. The plant is fitted with about 3,000 units of machinery and a total space of 20,000m2 giving it a processing capacity of 300 tonnes (t) of meat a day.
Storage
The factory’s storage facility allows JBB to store about 1,000t of its products. It is ISO 22000 certified, according to data released by JBB.
The new facility will be located in close proximity of the company’s plant in Łyse. The amount of the latest investment was not disclosed by the meat processor.
"The implementation of this investment will begin in September, as soon as we take care of the last formalities," the company's spokesperson said.
JBB says its product range consists of about 250 products. These include sausages, hams, frankfurters, pates and other products made of pork and poultry meat. These are marketed under several brands, which includes Grill & Play, Masarnia u Józefa (Józef’s Butcher Shop) and Parówki Tęczowe (Rainbom Sausages). The firm is owned by local businessman Józef Bałdyga who bought the formerly state-owned company in 1992.
Increase exports
Currently, JBB supplies its products mostly to the Polish market, with only about 10% of the firm’s output intended for foreign sales. With the launch of a second facility, the producer is aiming to increase its exports, according to senior company representatives.
"The products made at JBB’s plant in Łyse are supplied to, among others, the UK, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Belgium, so mostly EU member states," Mielnicka said. "This said, I can say that we have carried out first deliveries to [new] markets, Georgia and Azerbaijan. This marks our first step in this new direction.”
The company sells a significant share of its output through a network of partner stores which is particularly developed in Poland's eastern regions.
In 2009, a fire forced JBB to halt production at the plant in Łyse for four months, and caused the Polish company financial losses of about PLN 1bn (€237m).
