Nestle to invest Rs 1,230 cr in new plant, R&D centre

Swiss FMCG firm Nestle today said it will invest up to Rs 1,230 crore to set up a new plant, expand existing capacity and in building a new research and centre in India.

While up to Rs 1,000 crore investment has been earmarked to set up a new plant in Karnataka and hike capacity at its plant in Haryana by 2011, the firm will make an investment of up to Rs 230 crore to set up its first R&D centre in India to be operational by July 2012.

"Around Rs 1,000 crore investment has been earmarked till 2011 for increasing production capacity," Nestle India Chairman and Managing Director Antonio Helio Waszyk told reporters here.

The company will invest Rs 350 crore to set up its new plant at Karnataka to manufacture Maggi brand of products, while another Rs 550 crore will be put to expand the capacity of its current plant at Samalkha in Haryana.

There will also be capacity increase at other plants, he added without specifying details. Nestle has seven manufacturing facilities across India.

The company will also be making an investment of about Rs 230 crore on its first Indian R&D Centre, which will be operational by July 2012.

The new R&D Centre at Manesar in Haryana will be the 30th centre for the company worldwide and it will be used for facilitating innovation in a wide variety of foods, including culinary, cereals beverages and dairy products.

"We have decided to strengthen our R&D organisation by building a new facility here in India...We are setting up a centre at Manesar, at an investment of 50 million Swiss Francs (about Rs 230 crore)," Head of Nestle R&D Centre, Worldwide, Klaus Zimmermann said.

The centre will be operational by July 2012 and this will bring the total number of Nestle R&D Centres to 30 worldwide, he added.

"This new centre will facilitate innovation in a wide variety of foods, including culinary, cereals beverages and dairy products," Zimmermann said.

He said the new centre will have a team of about 40 scientists and engineers initially.

Nestle, which sells popular products like Maggi noodles, Nescafe and KitKat chocolates, has been focusing on indigenisation of its products in India.