Heinz mulls transferring production to Poland
Pudliszki in the west of Poland is undergoing production trials for
Heinz products that are currently manufactured in western Europe,
suggesting that big change could be afoot for Heinz' production in
the region.
The move is widely expected to be the precursor to Heinz moving some of its western European production over to Poland where production costs are significantly cheaper. However, the company has stressed that the production trials are still at a rudimentary level and that there are no definite plans to transfer any specific production over to Poland at this point in time.
"I can confirm that the production trials are under way at the moment in the Pudliszki plant for the transferal of production from our operations in western Europe," Heinz Poland spokesperson Dorota Poninska told CeeFoodIndustry.com.
"However I must stress that no definite decision has been made to transfer any further production to our Polish facilities from our other plants in western Europe."
The Pudliszki production facilities comprise two production sites, one processing tomatoes and vegetables, the other manufacturing ready meals. To date small scale transfer of production to Poland from western European plants has already taken place, but as Poland has now become a part of the European Union it is a well known fact that any future transfer of production will be a far easier process to initiate.
Teh Pudliszki facilities are still on a very small scale, but with lower production costs, particularly compared to its production hub in the UK, the incentive to expand in Poland is looking increasingly attractive.
Currently the production facilities employ 500 people in the vegetable processing facilities and 170 in its ready meals division and last year the company had a total sales turnover of ZL 266 million (€58.8m) - a figure that pales when compared to the multi billion turnover for Europe as a whole.
In an increasingly competitive market Heinz have been losing out on its, admittedly, massive share of the European processed foods market. Last year its sales volumes slipped 1.4 per cent in Europe as a whole. This occurred despite product pricing being reduced by 0.3 per cent, which reflected growing competition on the market. With pricing becoming an increasingly important issue in Europe, shifting more production to Poland would certainly be advantageous if Polish production costs continue to remain low.
