ANGOLA – The Webcor Group, one of Angola’s leading food manufacturing companies, is set to commence production at its newly constructed Dulceria Nacional cookie and candy factory.

The facility has been established in partnership with the Argentine multinational confectionery company, Grupo Arco, at a cost of US$45m.

It is expected to produce 6,000 tons of the region’s best-loved biscuits, candy and chocolates brands in the first year, starting with Bon o Bon from February, followed by biscuits in March.

It will scale up to 15,000 tons afterwards to serve both the local market and those of neighbouring Congo, Namibia, Zambia, and Botswana, bringing a competitive advantage in terms of cost and distribution.

Located in Luanda, the Dulceria Nacional factory is currently testing the production lines to evaluate its performance and calibration.

Equipped with the latest cutting-edge production systems and staffed by highly specialized teams, Dulceria has a production capacity of 600 kg/h of Bon o Bon and 1,200 kg/h of biscuits.

“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.

Webcor triples capacity of packaging bags production

The announcement follows the company’s opening of its new US$9.5m raffia bag processing unit in November last year, through its industrial subsidiary IMEX.

Having launched its woven polypropylene raffia bag production line in 2019 and doubling production after a year to meet demand, IMEX has tripled its production capacity with the opening of the state-of-the art facility as it gears up to become sub-Saharan Africa’s largest raffia bag manufacturer.

The produced Flexible Intermediate Bulk Containers (FIBC) are used for transportation and storage of foods, agricultural goods, fertilizers, and other items.

With a production capacity of 60 million bags a year and 70% coverage of current market needs, IMEX eyes the export market after covering all the needs of home market.

Webcor opens new mill

Meanwhile, IMEX’s sister company, Grandes Moagens de Angola, recently completed construction of the first phase of its wheat flour mill 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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