20 football fields in size
Haribo plans new chewing candy factory for 300 million euros
27.05.2024, 20:44
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Haribo can no longer meet the demand for Maoam with the existing factory in Neuss. A larger production facility for the popular chewy sweets is to be built. The company is investing a lot of money in this.
The candy manufacturer Haribo wants to invest around 300 million euros in a new factory in Neuss (North Rhine-Westphalia) where Maoam chewy sweets will be produced. The company announced that it is in talks with the city of Neuss regarding the purchase of a 14-hectare site (20 football pitches). Construction could begin in 2025 and production could start in 2028. Haribo’s Chief Operating Officer Markus Riegelein had previously given an interview to the “Handelsblatt” and reported on the project.
The company, based in Grafschaft in the north of Rhineland-Palatinate, already has another plant in Neuss, where all Maoam chewing candies are currently manufactured. After a transitional period with parallel operations, this old plant is to be shut down – it is significantly smaller than the new site, whose production capacity will reportedly be about twice as high.
The existing factory can no longer meet the demand for Maoam and there is not enough space to expand the factory. The company therefore plans to build a new factory five kilometers away. Haribo currently has 350 employees in Neuss, and around 100 more are to be added in the future. In the new large site, not only Maoams but also fruit gums will be produced in the future.
Major investment for Germany as an industrial location
In 2020, Haribo stopped production at a 120-employee plant in Saxony, attracting criticism. Now the company is choosing Germany as an industrial location for a major investment. Wage and energy costs are high in this country and many regulatory requirements do not make life easy for manufacturing companies, manager Riegelein told the “Handelsblatt”. “But these are challenges that we are accepting.” Especially since the general conditions around the world are not particularly stable at the moment. “It is still possible to produce competitively in Germany.”
The company name Haribo stands for “Hans Riegel Bonn”. The candy company had its headquarters in the former federal capital for a long time, but in 2018 it relocated to Grafschaft. It has a factory there as well as in Bonn, Neuss and Solingen. Haribo says it has around 7,000 employees worldwide, around 3,000 of them in Germany. Maoam has only been part of Haribo since 1986, when the company took over the chewy candy manufacturer Edmund Münster GmbH & Co. KG.