Barry Callebaut , the world’s largest chocolate manufacturers announces opening of its new chocolate and compound manufacturing facility in Baramati, India.
The new 20,000 square metre facility is their biggest investment in India to date, which includes an R&D lab, warehouse, and assembly lines that can facilitate chocolate manufacturing in different forms according to its customer’s needs, from international food manufacturers to local patisseries.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of the Barry Callebaut Group said:
The new factory in Baramati celebrates India’s rich chocolate heritage and marks a new milestone in Barry Callebaut’s history of direct investment in India.
It underlines our commitment to the world’s second most populous country, a confectionery market with great potential.
In line with our ‘smart growth’ strategy, the new factory expands our local production footprint in the region.
Once fully operational, the company will create 100-120 jobs mainly in engineering and production.
The facility also boasts a variety of energy and water-saving solutions in the infrastructure, production equipment and overall facility control system.
Barry Callebaut’s Chocolate Academy Centre in Mumbai, India
As recently reported, the ICCO reckons India could become the fastest-growing cocoa market. It looks like Barry Callebaut is thinking along the same lines and expanding out into the world’s second-most populous country, as the company further strengthens its presence.
Apart from this latest new facility, Barry Callebaut already has another chocolate factory in Pune, a western Indian state of Maharashtra, and a specialties and decorations factory, also located in Baramati.
Together with its existing CHOCOLATE ACADEMY™ Center and sales office in Mumbai, the company is well positioned to expand its work with customers to co-create innovative chocolate for local consumers.
Over the last four years, Barry Callebaut has seen double-digit growth in India, with an enthusiastic consumer response towards innovative chocolate such as Ruby chocolate.
Indian consumers have been shifting their preference towards chocolate products over traditional sweets.
The rising disposable income of the middle-class population in the country has affected the market space for overall chocolate consumption and demand for high-quality chocolate has been rising, which has prompted a concurrent increase in domestic chocolate production.
Dhruva Jyoti Sanyal, Managing Director for Barry Callebaut India, said:
The opening of our new flagship chocolate factory marks an important step forward in advancing our business across more regions of India.
This new facility underpins our ability to deliver a broad portfolio of locally produced chocolate products that meet the increasingly diversified needs of consumers in India’s fast-growing chocolate and cocoa market.
