Cadbury India signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh government on Wednesday (November 27) to set up a chocolate manufacturing facility at Sri City Special Economic Zone in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.

“Spread across 134 acre, it will be the company’s largest manufacturing facility in Asia-Pacific region,” said Manu Anand, Managing Director, Cadbury India.

He expects the first phase of the project to be completed by mid-2015. Cadbury India will invest Rs 1,000 crore and produce around 100,000 tonne of Cadbury chocolates annually.

Though Anand did not provide details of the total investment on the entire project, expected to be completed in four phases by 2020.

“The plant will ultimately have an annual capacity of 250,000 tonnes and directly employ 1600 people,” he added.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who spoke at the MoU signing ceremony, said the project would also benefit some 400,000 farmers in the region as it will need about 500,000 litre of milk and 100 tonne of sugar per day.

The signatories to the MoU were Anand on behalf of Cadbury India and the state’s Principal Secretary, Industries, K. Pradeep Chandra. Major Industries Minister J. Geeta Reddy and a number of other ministers also attended. Sri City lies about 55 kms north of Chennai.

The Andhra Pradesh unit will be Cadbury India’s seventh manufacturing facility in India. Some other global chocolate manufacturers in India are also eyeing opportunities for setting up manufacturing. Cadbury India is part of Mondelez International group of companies. Some of its key brands are Cadbury Dairy Milk, Bournvita, 5 Star, Perk, Bourneville, Halls, Tang and Oreo.

source: http://www.businesstoday.intoday.in / Business Today / Home> Biz Wrap> Corporate> Story / by E. Kumar Sharma / November 27th, 2013