250 new recruits in 2015, of which 200 in Belgium Alpro, the European food company sees a strong growth of the market of plant-based drinks and food products and grows even faster. The company wants to maintain this pace and therefore continues to invest and innovate. Alpro invests, among others, in eight new production lines, which will hugely increase its production capacity for Europe and will also result in extra employment, mainly in Belgium. Both the sale of soy drinks, plant-based alternatives to yoghurt and the sale of drinks based on other ingredients such as almonds, oat, rice and coconut continue to increase.
Considerable investments and capacity expansion
Since the expansion in 2012 of its existing range of drinks and food products based on soy and the introduction of plant-based drinks based on almond and hazelnut, Alpro already invested about 75 million Euro in new production lines, recruited 200 new staff and made great efforts to promote its brand.
In 2015, an extra 80 million Euro will be invested and 250 employees recruited.
There will in all be eight new production lines (increase from 18 to 26), five of which in the biggest factory of Alpro in Wevelgem and three in the factory in the United Kingdom. This will result in a major increase of our overall production capacity.
The plant-based drinks and food market is rapidly growing
The sale of plant-based drinks and food products is booming. In the major nine countries in which Alpro sells its products, the market grew in the past year by 19%. In that same period, Alpro grew even faster than the market (+ 27% growth versus +19% market growth).
The sale of soy drinks continues to increase, but it is mainly the new products that score exceptionally well. Today, innovations in drinks based on other ingredients than soy, such as almond, oat, rice and coconut, represent 35% of the market and 30% of Alpro's turnover.