Mondelez Inaugurates $90M Biscuit Manufacturing Plant

Global food and beverage firm Mondelez International officially inaugurated a new, $90 million manufacturing site for biscuits in Manama, Bahrain on Tuesday, expanding its presence in the Gulf region and beyond.

Billed as the “Factory of the Future,” the plant will produce a number of products including Oreo cookies and Barni soft cakes, according to a company press release announcing the plant’s opening. The products will be distributed throughout the Gulf region, Africa, and other parts of the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean.

“The Middle East and Africa are priority markets for us, and we’re confident in our selection of Bahrain as the preferred location for our plant, due to its business-friendly environment, skilled local workforce, and excellent transport links, all of which will be instrumental to the success of our growth plans,” Maurizio Brusadelli, executive vice president and president of Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa at Mondelez, said in a statement.

Mondelez’s 250,000-sq-ft plant in Bahrain features a production capacity of about 45,000 tn/yr. About 150 new jobs were created as a result of the facility’s opening, the company said.

“This investment in Bahrain is a great example of how we’re building a world-class supply chain, with Factories of the Future in strategic locations around the world designed to simplify operations, increase flexibility, improve productivity, and meet the growth demands of our Power Brands,” Daniel Myers, executive vice president of integrated supply chain, said in the release.

Plans for the Bahrain biscuit production facility were first announced in 2014, according to a Reuters report, which Mondelez estimated at the time would provide savings of $3 billion in gross productivity.

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