FINLAND – Leading malting company in Europe, Viking Malt Group has announced plans to invest around €90 million (about US$106 million) to build a new malting house in Lahti, Finland.

The new project is part of the long-term growth strategy of Viking Malt to modernize operations and expand expand capacity and one of the biggest investments in Finnish food and beverage industry and in Lahti region during the past 10 years.

The malting company, which sells its products globally to the food, beverage and brewing industries, says that the plant’s production capacity will be around 85,000 tons per year.

The modern new plant in Lahti which Viking Malt expects to be read by 2020, will replace an existing production site which the company has operated for over 130 years.

Viking Malt says that the move will enable it to produce a variety of new products on top of its current selection.

Apart from the Finland production site, Viking Malt Group has production sites in four other countries including Sweden, Denmark, Lithuania, and Poland.

Currently, the company has an installed production capacity of about 600 000 tonnes per annum and registers an annual turnover of approximately 250 million euros (about US$295.6 million).

Viking malt is the leading company in specialty malt in the global market and is the 9th largest producer of malt in the world.

The company is majority owned by ingredients group Polttimo who control a 65% stake in the company while the remaining stake is owned by Swedish agricultural cooperative, Svenska Lantmännen.

The investment in a new malting house follows the recent appointment of Teemu Pohjola as the new CFO of Polttimo and Viking Malt Group.

Previously Teemu Pohjola held the position of the CFO of Huhtamäki Fiber and Foodservice segment leading an international team of Finance professionals driving its financial strategy and performance since 2017.

As CFO, Teemu Pohjola will lead the finance organization across the five Viking Malt countries and will be responsible for IT as well as accounting, treasury, financial planning, analysis and tax.

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