Confectionery giant Mars Wrigley will spend $25.5 million on its Ballarat facility to expand production, increase sustainable packaging efforts, and drive operational efficiencies.
The funding builds on the company’s commitment in September 2021 to invest $30 million to expand the plant’s chocolate manufacturing to develop more variants on existing lines for M&M’s, Pods, and the new Mars Raspberry Smash as well as a new packaging line for Maltesers.
The latest funding will roll out across the next 12 months on innovation projects within its Bitesize portfolio, improving its raw cocoa and melted chocolate production, increasing the site’s manufacturing capabilities, as well as accelerating its local sustainable packaging efforts and finding greater operational efficiencies.
Commenting on the sustainable packaging initiatives, Chris Hutton, R&D Director, Mars Wrigley Australia told PKN: "As one of the largest FMCG manufacturers in Australia, we know we have an ongoing responsibility to reduce our environmental footprint and lead by example.
"The latest investment at our Ballarat factory is enabling us to create greater innovation across our Bitesize portfolio [includes M&Ms, Maltesers, and Pods], increase operational efficiencies, and supports our local R&D team’s continued efforts to look at ways in which we can make our packaging more sustainable. This includes testing and learning from a wide range of packaging material and design changes that can be scaled to ensure our packaging never becomes waste."
Hutton confirmed Mars Wrigley is currently working on a number of projects that look at a variety of new packaging materials, with its core objectives being to ensure that the company's products can be easily recycled by consumers and where possible make use of recycled content to drive circularity while retaining the high quality of its products.
"We are driving forward this research and development locally from Ballarat, and we’re excited to share more on our efforts over the coming months," he said.
Mars Wrigley Australia general manager Andrew Leakey said the latest investment reflected the company’s commitment to make the majority of its product portfolio in Australia.
“We are cementing this further by unlocking greater capabilities to create new consumer-led product innovation whilst accelerating our sustainable packaging focus locally,” Leakey said.
Leakey also reiterated the company’s commitment to regional manufacturing and its legacy in Ballarat. Mars Wrigley has had a factory in the city for more than 40 years.
In 2020, the company invested $300,000 in new technology so M&M’s Pretzel could be locally produced.
