Additionally, according to Fazer Bakery Baltic executive director of business operations Petri Kujala, a restructuring is planned for the firm’s entire Baltic operation involving a move of all production from the Tallinn plant to facilities in Latvia and Lithuania.
He pointed out the the situation in the bread sector is currently “very complicated”, as costs continue to rise while consumption declines.
“The total capacity of the Baltic bread market is greater than the local demand, therefore to strengthen our competitiveness we’ve chosen to make structural changes to our production process,” the company spokesman explained.
The Tallinn baking house lines will be moved entirely to similar facilities in Ogre and Kaunas, which are scheduled for final completion by fall of 2015, while the Tallinn plant is set to close by April of next year.
Ogre stands to gain about 40 new jobs from the more than €5m-worth investment project.
Another Fazer Bakery Baltic executive Mindaugas Snarskis said the new bakery in Ogre would be geared toward export markets, yet “also be a chance to offer new products to consumers in the Baltics.”
In 2013 Fazer Latvija posted turnover of €18.41m. It is a leader in the consumer bread market, owning the two brands Fazer and Druva, employing more than 250 people as the largest employer in Ogre.
On its part, mother company Fazer Group posted a record turnover of €1.7bn last year, according to the more than hundred-year-old international family-owned company’s financial reports.
