ATRIA GROUP PLC INVESTS IN A PIG SLAUGHTERHOUSE EXTENSION IN NURMO Atria Group plc, Finland's largest meat company and the biggest manufacturer of meat products in the Nordic and Baltic countries, has decided to invest in the extension and refurbishing of its pig slaughterhouse in Nurmo as well as its sties and refrigeration and storage facilities. The construction works will begin in September 2004. The premises are slated to be fully completed and ready for inauguration in spring 2006. The investment has a pricetag of slightly over EUR 21 million and will impart significant operational cost-savings. It will be carried out because the present production capacity is being fully utilised, the company aims to harness the latest technology and to achieve cost-savings. Works on the pork line investment will be divided into several stages. Construction will begin in September this year. In the first stage, a new stunning area and sties will be built. They will be completed in March 2005. The second stage of the construction works will be completed at the beginning of 2006. The second stage focuses on the refurbishing of the slaughterhouse. The entire project will be seen to completion in spring 2006. Atria's production plant in Nurmo features about 120,000 m2 in modern production premises, most of which were built in the 1990s or later. Construction in Nurmo began with the building of a deep-freeze storage facility in 1976. The current pig slaughterhouse was completed in 1982. It was state-of-the-art for its time and since then over 9 million pigs have been processed on its line. The Nurmo production plant processes about 2,200 pigs each day. The modernisation of the line has now become timely. At its production plant in Kuopio, Atria processes about 700 pigs per day. In the EU, the profitability of such small units has become questionable. For this reason, pig slaughtering will most likely be transferred from Kuopio and centralised in Nurmo after the new plant is completed. Works on the pig slaughterhouse that will now be modernised will comprise 6,300 m2 in new production premises and the refurbishing of 5,100 m2 in existing premises. The modernisation works involve the sties, the stunning, refrigeration and storage facilities, the production lines themselves, and the laboratory. It is intended that the extension will increase the capacity of the pork line and ensure high-quality product safety in the future as well with new, cutting-edge technology. The processing capacity will increase substantially; the present hourly rate of 295 pigs will rise to 600 pigs. The production line will be robotically automated. New technology makes it possible to pay even greater attention to slaughtering hygiene. The other new technology that will be deployed will also assure the product quality of the meat raw materials and product safety. Pork production is exceeding in Finland. In 2003, the production volume grew by five per cent compared with the previous year. Atria's pork procurements grew by seven per cent. Pork consumption was up three per cent. Imports of pork decreased to one per cent and exports of Finnish pork increased by 32.7 per cent in 2003 compared with the previous year. (Source: Meat market report, January- December 2003, Suomen Gallup Elintarviketieto Oy). Atria's pork procurement and processing volumes have increased steadily. It is estimated that over 64 million kg of pork will be processed this year, while 60.7 million kg was processed last year and 55.9 million kg five years ago. As Atria brand products are made solely from Finnish meat, a considerable share of the pork is used in the manufacture of the company's own meat products. In addition, Atria is a significant meat vendor both on the domestic wholesale market and in export markets. Operations in export markets set stringent quality requirements on the production plant and meat processing. The new production line will have a minimal impact on personnel in Nurmo. However, the further processing of meat increases the need for employees. The potential discontinuation of pig slaughtering in Kuopio would lead to personnel cuts of 125 people. At present, 350 people work at the Kuopio plant. Atria is currently looking into starting up production operations in Russia. At present, close to half of Atria's turnover is generated outside Finland's borders. The company aims to further increase the share of production operations accounted for by Baltic rim countries. The pig slaughterhouse investment now being planned does not have any effect on these expansion plans. ATRIA GROUP PLC Seppo Paatelainen President DISTRIBUTION Helsinki Exchanges Principal media
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