Polish food producer to expand facilities

Wilbo, a Polish food processor, has said that it will still go ahead with the planned expansion of its manufacturing facilities despite disappointing financial results, according to a report in the Polish News Bulletin​.

The company announced last year that it planned to buy or build a processing facility and cold storage plant on the strength of solid financial results. However, it has announced losses amounting to PZ2.1 million (€520,000) in the first half of the year, which caused industry observers to cast doubt on the company's expansion plans.

Contrary to this opinion, Wilbo president Jerzy Kunicki has given the go ahead for the expansion.

"We would like to buy a processing plant in Wladyslawowo, but if this is not possible we have the alternative of building our own plant. The cost of such an investment would be between PZ5-10m,"​ Kunicki said.

Kunicki also confirmed that the source of finances has not changed.

In recent years, the company has modernised most of its existing food processing facilities in order to increase production, but an increasingly competitive food processing market has pushed the profit margins of many of the country's leading players to testing point.

Wilbo was the first company to produce and sell canned fish as a branded product in Poland. Currently its Neptun brand is nationally recognised and is Poland's best known canned fish brand. More recently, the brand has been extended to include ready-to-eat marinated and pickled fish products in a variety of sauces.