Mars invests R $ 140 million in feed mill in PR

One of the largest manufacturers of food and animal feed in the world, the American Mars announced yesterday that it will invest $ 140 million in the construction of its third plant of food for dogs and cats, in Paraná. The company's goal is to make the Brazil their second largest market worldwide.
The Brazil is today among the ten largest markets of the company, present in 73 countries. But, with approximately 37.1 million dogs, the Country is the second largest in the world in canine population-and the fourth largest in number of cats, with 21.3 million cats, according to the Brazilian Association of Pet Products (Abinpet).
"This shows how much there is to land the Mars grow in Brazil", says the President of Brazil, Carlos Dieppa Mars.
It was yesterday with the Governor of Paraná, Beto Richa, to sign a memorandum of understanding for the construction of its fifth factory in Brazil, the third of animal feed.
The company has feed mills in Mogi Mirim and Bared, both in the State of São Paulo, and in Recife. Also manufactures chocolates and foods in Guararema (SP). "We needed an animal feed factory in the South, where there is a large concentration of population of pets," says Dieppa. "With it, we will gain speed in the distribution in all the southern States", he says.
The company plans to start production in 2015, but still did not set in that city will be built. "We are negotiating with municipal governments, but our idea is to choose any location near the Curitiba", says the Executive.
The investment of r $ 140 million in the unit, according to Dieppa, is high. "We are investing twice as much than normally spends for a common feed factory because the unit will have laboratories and State-of-the-art technology," he says.
More feed. Last year, according to the industry association, the food for dogs and cats in Brazil moved $ 9.72 billion, with a growth of 15.5% over the r $ 8.41 billion in 2011.
"Our sales have followed market trends," said Dieppa, who does not reveal sales figures. Worldwide, the company has had in 2012 a revenue of more than $ 30 billion, according to his press office.
"The domestic market grew enough until 2008, 2009. After stagnating somewhat, especially in relation to food for dogs. For cats, the numbers grow year by year. In 2012, however, sales of dogfood again have a good increase, thanks to the economic evolution of class C ", says the Executive.
In Brazil, the Mars-which also owns the brands Royal Canin, super premium feed, M&M's chocolates, Uncle Ben's rice and Masterfoods food line-is a leader in sales both in canine nutrition market, with 26% stake, as in the feedingstuffs for cats, with 42% of the national market.
The Parana factory generates about 100 jobs. In total, the company has 1.6 thousand employees in Brazil.