August 21, 2014

Vion to invest millions in boosting German meat processing plants

Vion Food will be making a multi-million euro investment in its Bavarian processing facilities.

Weeks after Vion's CEO, Michiel Herkemij, COO for beef, Bernd Stage, and COO for pork, Godert Tegelberg, had announced the company's new strategy, expansion plans for its German operations at Waldkraiburg, Landshut and Vilshofen are being implemented.  

Almost half of the investments will focus on the expansion of the slaughter-and-cutting plant in Landshut, Bavaria. Completion of the project during mid-2015 will see processing reaching near-double capacity at 21,000 pigs weekly.

In Vilshofen, another specialist pork slaughterhouse in Bavaria, millions more will be invested to install state-of-the-art equipment, that will optimise processing efficiencies.

Vion assumes that the parties of the minority shareholder, producer association Südostbayern eG, will also approve the investments in Landshut and Vilshofen.

Landshut and Vilshofen are key regional pork businesses for Vion and are vital for the export market. At the same time, Vion will invest in the Waldkraiburg plant in Upper Bavaria. This will become the largest beef plant within Vion, with capacity increasing from 3,000 to 4,500 cattle per week.

Pig processing will focus on the Landshut and Vilshofen sites while the Waldkraiburg plant will become the largest beef plant. In the long-term, business locations at Straubing and Pfarrkirchen will close. In addition, there is also plans to close the beef processing plant at Leutkirch, with cattle being re-directed to the Buchloe and Crailsheim operations.