Podravka opens new €15m pasta factory in Croatia 

(Photo: Podravka)

The new Podravka Pasta Factory in Koprivnica has been officially inaugurated, with an investment worth over 15 million euros.

This factory is the first newly built one in Podravka’s food segment in the last 17 years. The construction and installation of new machinery took a year, and thanks to state-of-the-art equipment, the technological process of pasta production has been modernised and further improved, the company said in a statement on Friday. 

The factory was ceremoniously launched by the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, and the CEO of Podravka, Martina Dalić, in the presence of high officials, employees, company management, and business partners.

(Photo: Podravka)

In the new Pasta Factory, built on more than 4,800 square meters, industrial pasta will be produced for the manufacturing of Podravka soups, as well as twisted and short pasta under the Zlato polje brand. 

With this investment, Podravka enhances its pasta production capacity, laying the foundation for further sales growth in the soup category and the development of new pasta-related products.

“By opening this entirely new factory, Podravka reaffirms its determination to continue growing and developing as a modern and highly competitive multinational company. In line with our business strategy, we are intensively improving all segments of our operations—through this and other investments, completed and ongoing ones—while focusing on sustainable business. We continuously and significantly improve the incomes of our employees and working conditions. 

We modernise our market presence and overall communication, including the modernisation of our visual identity, with the aim of supporting our growth goals in the most competitive Western markets. All of this is achieved because we deliver good financial results. These results, reflected in the historically highest value of our shares, enable us to achieve ambitious investment goals without increasing indebtedness, ensuring strong wage growth without compromising competitiveness, and actively and responsibly contributing to the local community where we live,” stated Martina Dalić, CEO of Podravka.

(Photo: Podravka)

For their dedicated work and engagement in building the new factory, the CEO specifically thanked Branimir Perković, the director of Podravka Production, project managers Mladen Cahunek and Marko Bijelić-Curkić, and their team, who successfully coordinated the construction and installation of production lines from start to finish.

“The new pasta factory is another significant step in Podravka’s development, as well as in the self-sufficiency of the food industry and the economy of the Republic of Croatia as a whole. On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, I thank all Podravka employees who have dedicatedly worked all these years, making the company one of the main Croatian economic brands. Podravka is today a stable, modern company that grows day by day, as evidenced by the constantly rising share price in recent years,” said Andrej Plenković, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia.

(Photo: Podravka)

As part of the opening program, guests were able to taste numerous pasta specialties. The current winner of Masterchef, Luka Veić, along with Podravka’s culinary ambassadors Mišel Tokić and Tomislav Rezo, provided a real cooking show, demonstrating the various possibilities of using this product to prepare creative and high-quality meals.

(Photo: Podravka)

This investment is part of Podravka Group’s investment cycle, carried out in accordance with the Group’s Business Strategy until 2025. The priority of the investment cycle is to invest in modernisation, introduce new technologies and digitisation, improve efficiency and energy efficiency, and further enhance working conditions. By the end of 2024, the completion of two more major investments is expected—a new Tomato Processing Factory in Varaždin and a new logistics-distribution centre in Koprivnica, which is also the largest investment within the Strategy.