The American company Kraft Foods opened Friday its expanded chocolate factory in the Bulgarian town of Svoge to the northeast of the capital Sofia.

The company has invested BGN 40 M in the expansion adding two new production lines to its existing facilities. Thus, the Svoge factory will be able to produce up to 1 000 000 bars of chocolate per day (365 000 000 bars of chocolate per year), turning Bulgarian into a chocolate supplier for the other countries in Southeast Europe.

The opening of the expanded plant was attended by Christoph Wenisch, Regional Director of Kraft Foods for Southeast Europe and Turkey; Franco Del Fabbro, Executive Director of Kraft Foods Bulgaria; Susan Sutton, Deputy Ambassador of US to Bulgaria; and Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Economy, Evgeni Angelov.

“This is our largest investment of such type in Southeast Europe,” Del Fabbro said adding the factory would expand the production of traditional Bulgarian brands of chocolate and chocolates such as Svoge, Sezoni, and Moreni, and of international brands such as Milka and Suchard.

Kraft Foods employs over 800 people in Bulgaria. The expansion of its Svoge plant will add 120 new jobs at the company, and will create another 200 jobs that are indirectly connected with the new investment.

In 2008, Kraft Foods invested BGN 1,6 M into a factory for cooling coffee in the town of Kostinbrod (also located near Sofia), which has turned into a regional center for the company’s coffee production.

Kraft Foods is the second largest foods production company in the world employing about 100 000 people worldwide.

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