By Roberto Samora
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Nestle SA said on Tuesday it will almost double its investments in Brazil in 2022 from a year earlier as it builds a new pet food factory and looks to expand its overall industrial capacity in the country.
The annual investments are expected to reach more than 1.8 billion reais ($355.59 million), up from 939 million reais in 2021, Nestle told Reuters, adding that its new Purina plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina - which is already under construction - will get about 40% of the total amount.
Some 1.1 billion reais will be invested in Nestle's industrial operations in the South American country, including new technologies, logistics and sustainability initiatives.
Of that, 90% is set to go to new lines as it aims to boost output capacity, Nestle said, while also planning to invest in energy to shift part of its power generation in Brazil to biomass from gas.
Nestle's coffee plants - seen as a priority for the company in Brazil, the world's largest producer and exporter of the commodity - will get 160 million reais this year. Such an amount does not include investments in sales and distribution channels, it said.
"It is going to be a year of a lot of investments in innovation, increased efficiency and productivity in our lines," Nestle's chief executive in Brazil, Marcelo Melchior, said in a statement.
"We are accelerating investments and... that will allow us to expand capacity while also supporting the business strategies we planned for the period," Melchior said.
($1 = 5.0620 reais)