Cadbury to invest over Rs 1,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh plant

Cadbury India will set up its biggest manufacturing facility in the Asia-Pacific region in Andhra Pradesh's Sri City business hub with an initial investment of over Rs 1,000 crore. The announcement by the unit of Nasdaq-listed snacking company Mondelez International is a rare piece of good news in the midst of gloomy economic data and complaints by foreign investors about the business environment in India.

The manufacturer of Cadbury Dairy Milk, Bournvita and Oreo biscuits plans to add three more phases involving a total investment of at least Rs 2,000 core by 2020. The first phase is expected to start by mid-2015. At present, Cadbury India has its manufacturing facilities in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

Cadbury India has signed an agreement with Sri City to take on lease 134 acres for the facility in the business city with special economic zones, domestic tariff zones and free trade and warehousing zones on the AP border, located close to Chennai. The business city now houses over 90 industrial units from 25 countries.

"We are excited over attracting such large investment from Cadbury India at a time when the entire country is suffering from unfavourable economic conditions and Andhra Pradesh is reeling because of a political crisis," Sri City managing director Ravindra Sannareddy.

Cadbury India said that the multi-category food campus it is setting up at Sri City will have the largest chocolate manufacturing plant in the country.The facility is expected to create close to 1,600 direct jobs in total.

"This investment will build on our success in India till date and ensure long-term business sustainability," Mondelez's president for India and South Asia, Anand Kripalu, was quoted as saying. Among the FMCG companies which have their facilities at Sri City are PepsiCo, Kellogg's and Colgate Palmolive.