The Spanish beer brand Estrella Galicia, from the Hijos de Rivera group, will invest R$ 2 billion in the construction of a factory in Araraquara (277 km from São Paulo), the company’s first outside Spain.
The expectation is to generate 400 direct jobs with the plant, which should start operating at the end of 2023, as disclosed this Thursday (25th) by the governor of São Paulo, João Doria (PSDB).
“Estrella Galicia is the second largest brewery group in Spain, one of the largest brewing groups in the world and is the best-selling beer brand in that country,” said Doria, in a press interview at Palácio dos Bandeirantes.
When fully operational, the unit is expected to produce 3 million hectoliters per year. Today, the brand rents a production space from the Casa di Conti brewery, in Cândido Mota (SP). The current sales volume in Brazil is 160 thousand hectoliters per year.
According to the company, the idea is that the future factory is a model of sustainable production and adopts good environmental practices.
“It is, without a doubt, a dream and we hope that, together, we can make it a reality in 2023”, declared Estrella Galicia’s Global Executive Director, Ignacio Rivera. According to the executive, half of the planned investment will be made in January 2022, for the first phase of the project.
The company’s original project was to install the factory in Minas Gerais, but the logistical conditions offered for it to be transferred to the interior of São Paulo were better, according to Rivera.
According to the state and municipal governments, the incentives to attract the plant came through support for locating the land and training local workers. The municipality exempted the company from taxes linked to the construction of the plant.
“Not a fiscal incentive by the government of São Paulo, but a set of facilities of a digital government, streamlining procedures and an integrated action with the municipalities”, said Doria.
The plan is also to start producing 100% of the company’s portfolio in Brazil and use the factory’s location to distribute the brand in neighboring markets, such as Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia.
The choice of Araraquara to host the brewery’s factory in Brazil was advised by InvestSP (São Paulo Agency for Investment Promotion and Competitiveness).
The agency also participated in environmental discussions and research on the availability of water resources in the region for the plant’s operation.
“We have been looking for projects for São Paulo that develop their businesses in a sustainable way, as this will guarantee the growth of the economy in the long term”, said the president of InvestSP, Gustavo Junqueira.
It is the largest private investment in the city’s history, said the mayor of Araraquara, Edinho Silva (PT). “Politics is the art of joining efforts so that we can seek the common good, and the state of São Paulo, once again, sets an example.”
The mayor also highlighted that no ideological disputes were held in choosing the location of the future factory. “We are looking at the moment when the pandemic comes out. We need to generate jobs and make our economy grow.”
“A company that is going to make a large investment, as we are offering attractive conditions. Investments like this are a concrete result of all our efforts”, said the Secretary of Finance and Planning of the State of São Paulo, Henrique Meirelles.
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