Edita Food Industries acquires new bakery production line

Edita Food Industries S.A.E. (EFID.CA on the Egyptian Exchange & EFID.L) on the London Stock Exchange), a leader in the Egyptian packaged snack food market, announced today the acquisition of a new bakery production line. The new production line, which will be housed at Edita’s E07 facility, comes at an investment cost of c.EGP 135 million and is expected to be operational by February 2022.

The new line is set to expand Edita’s bakery annual production capacity by 11 thousand tons, allowing the company to meet the growing demand for its Molto products while further cementing its leadership position in this attractive market. The strong and rising demand for the company’s Molto brand is evidenced by the record-high utilisation rates recorded at the company’s bakery production lines throughout 2020 and has been supported by the successful rollout of multiple new products in 2020 and early 2021 including Edita’s Molto Sandwich and Molto Magnum product ranges. The bakery segment, which has historically been one of Edita’s core Segments, continues to be one of the fastest growing segments in the industry despite the challenges posed by Covid-19. Rising demand for Edita’s Molto products has seen the company capture a rising share of the fast-growing market, with the company’s market share as per the latest Nielsen market data standing at 61.5% in April 2021.

Commenting on the new production line, Edita Chairman Hani Berzi said: “Edita is looking to take full advantage of the solid fundamentals of the fast-growing bakery segment, where we have been directing considerable investments to grow our capacity and product offering. This strategy is already bearing fruit, with revenues from the bakery segment expanding nearly 34% year-on-year during 1Q2021 and continuing to make the largest contribution to consolidated top-line growth in the quarter. We plan to leverage the additional production muscle to further capitalise on the significant growth opportunities offered by the bakery segment and solidify our number one spot position in the market.”

Edita’s bakery segment contributed to 34.6% of the company’s consolidated top-line in 1Q2021, up from the 31.3% share in the first quarter of the previous year. Edita is a pioneer in the segment having introduced the first packaged croissant brand in Egypt, and now offers over 30 innovative SKUs under its flagship Molto brand. This latest line takes Edita’s total number of bakery production lines to eight.