ANGOLA – The President of Angola, João Lourenço, has officially inaugurated the newly built US$45m Dulceria Nacional factory, aimed to produce a wide range of biscuits, candy and chocolates brands.
Dulceria Nacional is a partnership between Arcor Group, a leading Argentinian multinational confectionery company and Webcor Group, one of Angola’s major food manufacturing entities.
The ribbon cutting by the Angolan Head of State was witnessed by some members of the Executive, representatives of the Diplomatic Corps accredited in Angola, businessmen, among others.
Located at Viana’s Industrial Complex in Luanda and extending over more than 11,500 m2, Dulceria is a world-class production facility fashioned with state-of-the-art equipment.
It has three production line with one set to produces the famous Bon o Bon chocolate at a rate of 3,500 tons per year.
Soon, it will start producing cookies with a capacity of 7,000 tons, as well as sweets with a capacity of 5,000 tons per year.
With this, Dulceria Nacional will supply the Angolan market and, with establishment of the second phase, the company is eyeing other sub-Saharan markets such as South Africa, Mozambique, Congo, Namibia, Zambia and Botswana.
“This partnership will contribute to the diversification and growth of the economy, direct and indirect job creation, the development of the Angolan market through the manufacturing of brands with a long history and the inclusion of products adapted to the preferences and needs of local consumers,” said Fernando Di Giusto, General Manager of Dulceria Nacional.
Currently it has a team of more than 150 employees, supported by qualified and experienced technicians and operators from Argentina, Brazil and Italy.
The total number of personal is expected to reach 500 people once all production lines are working at full capacity.
“The new factory marks another milestone in Webcor’s history of direct investment in Angola, underlining the Group’s commitment to expanding its local production footprint in the region,” said Wissam Nesr, Webcor Group CEO.
The launch of the candy factory follows the opening of a new wheat mill by Webcor’s subsidiary, Grandes Moagens de Angola in Lobito.
According to Webcor, construction of Lobito mill began in November 2018 and included the reconstruction of a colonial-era silo, installation of new metal silos, and cleaning and transportation equipment.
The silos, with a total storage capacity of 66,000 tons of grain, can unload grain ships at up to 300 tons per hour and perform pre-cleaning at 150 tons per hour.
In addition, the plant is prepared for loading trucks and railway wagons to close the logistics loop and is ready to increase its storage capacity by another 16 thousand tons in the future.
The new processing facility is an addition to its wheat mill located at the heart of Luanda’s port, featuring state of art machinery with a processing capacity of 1,200 tons of wheat/day.
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