Nestle Purina Cuts Ribbon on New $120M Pet Food Plant

Swiss food and beverage giant Nestle announced the opening of a new, $120 million Nestle Purina pet food plant in Teno, Chile on Wednesday as the company looks to expand its positon in the dry dog and cat food market in the country and the Latin American region.

“We are extremely proud of the accomplishment of this important project. Nestle sees great potential in Chile, and this is why we will now locally produce pet food that we had previously imported,” said Laurent Freixe, executive vice president of Nestle in the Americas, in a company press release. “We know the country has the supply, the labor force and the technology to drive innovation in the region.”

Set to employ 154 workers, the plant will manufacture dry pet food sold under the Dog Chow, Cat Chow, Purina Excellent, Doko, and Gati brands. The Swiss firm’s new site includes a differentiated pressurization system, three labs, and a 10,000 sq m distribution center.

Among the environmentally-friendly features of the factory, Nestle designed the site to meet the “Zero Waste” standard, installed a natural gas boiler to lower the site’s greenhouse emissions by 23% and sources 100% of its energy from renewable sources.

Nestle Purina sold 311 million tn of pet food in Chile during 2017, the company said.