Beverage manufacturer Simonds Farsons is investing approximately €27m to set up a new Maltese beer packaging facility equipped with a glass line and a canning line.
The new lines will enable the company to improve quality and increase the efficiency of its packaging through automation, while lowering energy consumption and reducing water use.
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The new facility will have the capacity to fill beer and non-alcoholic drinks at a rate that is three times faster than the company’s current capability.
As part of the project, Farsons has also focused on the centralisation of the storage of raw materials and packaging materials in order to reduce handling costs, improve storage conditions and computerise inventory control. The project also calls for investments in the retraining and upskilling of the company’s workforce to increase productivity.
Farsons aims to increase its exports from 6% of its total production by volume to 17% by 2020.
Work on the project will begin in April and is slated to be completed within two years.
Farsons CEO Norman Aquilina said that investment in the project will help the company’s vision to operate with the right cost structures in both the local and the international market.
"Through this investment, we will be rendering our business more competitive; expanding our current export base by enabling us to establish a position in select markets with high quality, innovative and premium brands," Aquilina added.
Image: Farsons chairman Louis Farrugia provides details of the €27m investment in the new beer packaging facility. Photo: courtesy of Simonds Farsons Cisk plc.
