Unilever to increase investment in Greece
Multinational group Unilever expects to have the first liquid detergents produced at its plant in Piraeus to cover local demand currently served by imports from Italy by the end of the first quarter of 2019.
The creation of the new production line will require an investment of 5 million euros for the production of some 10,000 tons per annum. That 5 million will come in addition to the 120 million euros the company invested in Greece in 2010-17.
The group’s plans also include the gradual transfer to Greece of the entire production of the Lux brand, which is currently manufactured in Saudi Arabia.
Papoutsanis and Rolco have been producing a part of that output for Unilever in Greece since last year, a model expected to continue.
“There is a plan unfolding for the gradual relocation of all production from Saudi Arabia to Greece,” Jean-Francois Etienne, Unilever’s managing director for Southeast Europe, told a press conference on Friday.
Today 65 percent of total Unilever sales in Greece originate from locally produced output. The scheduled sale of olive oil and margarine activity to the KKR fund will reduce that to 35 percent, but the addition of liquid detergents will bring it to 45 percent.
