Cargills introduces Kist biscuits:

Invests Rs 350 m on former Diana Confectionery

Hemanthi GURUGE

The Cargills Group has acquired the moribund factory of former Diana Biscuits investing Rs 350 million.

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC Managing Director Imtiaz Wahid told Daily News Business that the per capita biscuit consumption is 4kg and volume of biscuits will grow eight percent per annum.

“The factory’s maximum biscuit production capacity is 10,000 metric tonnes per year and we are looking to double the capacity within the next six to nine months,” he said.

Cargills Quality Confectionaries (Pvt) Ltd a subsidiary of the Cargills Ceylon PLC launched its brand new range of biscuits under the Kist brand. The newly launched biscuits include Kist cream crackers, lemon puff, Vanila wafers, chocolate cream, nice and marie.

Kist biscuits are available in all the Cargills Food City and grocery shops throughout the country.

“We will definitely look at exporting to other countries,” he said.

The Cargills Ceylon PLC has planned to expand its network in the country. From the current count of 165, the management targets to increase the network strength to 200 by the middle of next year.

“We are building a shopping mall in Jaffna which has all modern facilities including supermarket, shops, a food court, a cinema complex with seating capacity of 1000 people. The total investment of the project is Rs 500 million,” Wahid said.

The post war economic reintegration of Northern and Eastern provinces has boosted.

Construction work on the Jaffna shopping mall began recently and will be completed in 16 months.

Cargills plans to capitalize on this to ensure its vision of becoming the largest player in the food and beverage industry for the benefit of its customers and indeed the nation.