As a part of the deal, the Swiss group is also acquiring a production facility from Turin, located 65 km southwest from Mexico City. Investments are planned to expand capacity at the site, which will amount to around CHF 28.5m (€20.8 m) in 2011/12, said the company.
“This production site will be the platform to serve a variety of customers throughout the region.
Deliveries from the facility will commence immediately, projected to achieve 20,000 metric tons in the near term, with capacity to capitalize on other market opportunities,” it added.
Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: "With this additional production facility, combined with our existing facility in Monterrey, we are well positioned to serve the Mexican market as well as other emerging markets in Latin America.”
The Swiss group also recently secured a renewal of its supply deal with Hershey, which will “put its annual deliveries [to the US chocolate maker] beyond the current 80,000 metric tonnes.”
Last month, the company noted that developing regions such as India, China, Brazil, Poland, Russia, Mexico and the Asia Pacific were where its investments were seeing, in some cases, 20+ per cent volume gains.
In addition, the industrial chocolate supplier commented in May that its strong performance in emerging markets, which now account for 21 per cent of its business, had helped it record a 9 per cent hike in its half-year profits to CHF158.8m (€122.81m),
Notably, its Western European sales volumes fell 1.8 per cent amid profits coming under aggressive price pressure and "weaker consumer product results".