Haribo España, the Spanish subsidiary of Germany's Haribo group, has reported sales of €35 million for 2002, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year, according to a report from Europa Press.
Sales for 2003 are likely to reach €45 million, the company said, as a result of the launch of several new sugar confectionery lines produced on two new production lines which were inaugurated last November at the company's facility in Girona.
The new production lines cost the German company some €9 million, and a further €6 million will be spent this year on replacing some of the other facilities at the Girona plant. The aim is that the new lines will help increase production by 25,000 tons in 2003.
Haribo España currently produces more than three million of its famous bear-shaped sugar confectionery products each day, as well as 250,000 other sweets, and has two production sites in Spain, the other one being in Alicante, where it makes mainly liquorice products.
The company does good business in the Kosher confectionery market in Spain - where production began in 1998 - and now exports sweets to Jewish communities in the US, Canada, Israel, Belgium and the Netherlands. Total sales of Kosher confectionery produced at Haribo's Spanish plants are worth around €1 million.