Swiss food and beverage multinational Nestlé will invest US $700 million to modernize its existing 16 factories in Mexico and build a new one in Veracruz.

The company said in a statement that it will install state-of-the-art technology in its plants to increase productivity, make its processes more efficient and boost production capacity.

The investment will create 400 direct jobs and 4,000 indirect ones over the coming years, Nestlé said.

The outlay includes US $200 million already announced for the first stage of construction of a coffee processing plant in Veracruz. First announced in December 2018, the plant will boast cutting-edge green technology that will reduce the use of water and energy, Nestlé said.

The plant is expected to begin operations in the last quarter of 2020 and process 20,000 tonnes of Mexican-grown coffee a year.

At a meeting with Economy Secretary Graciela Márquez Colín at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Nestlé CEO for the Americas Laurent Freixe said that innovation has played a key role in allowing the company to remain a leader in nutrition, health and well-being.

“We’ve directed our efforts to the construction of a solid and sustainable innovation ecosystem that allows us to continue exploring new technologies, production processes and business models in benefit of our consumers,” he said.

“The Mexican market is a priority for our operations because the confidence of our Mexican consumers has made it . . . the fifth most important market for the company in the world and the second in Latin America.”

Nestlé also announced that its Mexico subsidiary has been chosen as its information technology hub for the Americas, meaning that it will take a leading role in the “digital transformation of the company.”

The announcement of Nestlé’s plans comes the same week as the publication of PwC’s Global CEO Survey, which showed that Mexico is no longer among the 10 most attractive countries in the world for investment.

Source: Informador (sp)