Almarai to invest $1.8bn in Saudi poultry expansion
Saudi food giant Almarai is set to invest SR6.6 billion ($1.8 billion) into an expansion of its poultry business, aiming to double its market share in the sector.
The expansion will be implemented in several phases over five years, the company said in a filing on Monday.
“Expansion will be focusing on different geographical locations in the Kingdom to enhance the biosecurity in poultry farms and to distribute the company’s contributions in economic development,” it said in a statement.
The project is one of a number of major private sector expansions announced in recent weeks and comes as the Kingdom moves to boost its food security in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Almarai said that the strategic expansion of the poultry segment will be funded through internally generated cash flows.
The company hopes the investment will help double its market share in the Kingdom’s poultry industry, Almarai CEO Abdullah Al-Bader told the Argaam financial news portal.
Al-Bader said that the new funding will also help double Almarai’s annual poultry production to almost 450 million birds, and will reduce the Kingdom’s reliance on imports.
At present, 45 percent of poultry consumed in Saudi Arabia is imported, but Almarai’s new production facilities would see this drop to about 20 percent, the CEO said.
Last month, Almarai reported that revenue in the first three months of 2021 rose 1.46 percent year on year to SR3.645 billion, while net income grew 0.76 percent. The results beat analysts’ expectations and came on the back of higher sales in Egypt and Jordan.