Bahrain's leading premium chocolates and confectionary manufacturer  has announced the commencement of the construction of its state-of-the-art facility in Bahrain International Investment Park, Salman Industrial City.

Chocolate & Company has started construction of its modern 13,530 sq ft facility, which is being built on a 43,000 sq ft plot, with an investment of more than $1.7 million.

With a current annual turnover of over $1.3 million, the new modern facility will allow for the rise in company's return through expansion of production capacity from its current level of 300kg per day to 1,200kg; a must for allowing expansion of operations since the company is currently producing and selling at capacity in its moderate Hijiyat facility.

In addition to increasing the kingdom's exports of food products, it is anticipated that this new facility should create a minimum of 50 new job opportunities with most of them going to Bahrainis.

The lead construction contract for the new facility has been awarded to Al Kobaisi Contracting, which is a subsidiary of the leading Al Kobaisi Group of Companies, a Bahrain-based contracting, concrete manufacturing, construction materials supply and trading conglomerate.

'We are delighted to have started work on constructing this new facility as this fits in with our long-term plan for Chocolate & Compnay's growth,' company's managing director Hazem Janahi said.

'This expansion comes just in the right time as our sales have outgrown our current Hijiyat facility and we are facing difficulties meeting the ever growing demand for our exceptional products.

As it is well known the food sector is very resilient in the face of economic or financial adversity, as such, although we have seen short-term sales and logistics difficulties, which we rectified through quick adjustment of our shipping schedules, our medium to long-term sales have not suffered any adverse effects and consequently our growth plans have not changed.

'This is particularly supported by the fact that almost 80 per cent of our production is actually exported to GCC countries, a trend that we are anticipating to keep increasing as we anticipate that the GCC economies will become more integrated in the near future.

'On behalf of all the company's shareholders and staff, we would like to thank Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Hassan Fakhro as well as all the staff at the Directorate of Industrial Areas and Bahrain International Investment Park for their confidence in Chocolate & Co and their unwavering support that allowed us to see this project starting to become a reality,'  Janahi said.-TradeArabia News Service