Wimm-Bill-Dann looks to functional future in Siberia
hopes will allow it to tap into growing demand in Siberia and other
far-east regions of Russia for functional and infant nutrition
products.
The group, which is one of the leading dairy producers within Russia and surrounding markets like the Ukraine, said the newly constructed baby-food facility at the company's Manros-M plant in Omsk would step up supply of products like its Agusha and Imunele brands. Agusha is a brand of infant nutrition prducts, while the Imunele label is used on a number of dairy goods like yoghurts that claim to offer benefits for the immune system. Like a growing number of companies, Wimm-Bill-Dan has sought to add additional value to its dairy products by launching products in its portfolio that can offer nutrition and other functional benefits. Dmitry Mironchikov, head of Wimm-Bill-Dann's Western Siberian operations said that the decision to extend the availability of its functional products represented their growing importance to the company. "The launch of production of the baby food and Imunele at Omsk is a strategic step forward in the development of the company," he stated. "We are seriously strengthening our presence in one of the fastest growing segments of the food market in Siberia and making it far simpler to supply the Urals, Eastern-Siberian and Far-East regions." The new $14m production facility has been designed by the company to have a production capacity of over 50 tonnes of baby food and functional products a day, he group says. Wimm-Bill-Dann claims that in order to tap growing demand for these products within the region, the plant has its own reception point for incoming raw milk supplies, a finished product warehouse and a total of three production lines for goods. The company claims that as a result of this investment, the site is now the largest production plant for children's dairy goods in Russia, East of the Ural Mountains.
