29 May 2008 - French dairy group Lactalis has invested 18 million euros in its Brittany sites of Vitré and L'Hermitage in a bid to meet growing global demand for some of its products, local media report.
Brittany is Europe’s top milk producing area, with 4.87 billion litres collected in 2006. Lactalis, the world’s second dairy group behind Nestle, owns four sites in the Western France region: Retiers, Vitré, l’Hermitage and Pontivy. Those highly specialized units have a significant growth potential, according to Luc Morelon, Lactalis’ spokesperson.
The group has already invested 15 million euros in its Vitré bottling and packaging plant in order to increase its capacity to 430 million units. Work should be complete by summer 2008. An additional 3 million euros are to be spent on the modernisation of the group’s L’Hermitage site.
Lactalis had plans to invest another 15 million euros in its Pontivy unit, which specializes in cheesemaking. The investment would have allowed the plant to diversify into pizza cheese and mozzarella production. Although expansion of the plant has now been ruled out, the group still intends to invest in the Pontivy site, add the reports.