Alpro invests in production facilities for plant-based future
Alpro has announced over €30 million of investments in its production sites at Wevelgem (Belgium) and Kettering (UK) in response to the fast growing demand for plant-based products.
The news comes as Alpro marks its 40th birthday with the launch of a new health and sustainability action plan for 2025 under the banner “Feeding our Future with Plants”.
This commitment was revealed during a celebratory anniversary event at the Wevelgem production facility in Belgium in the presence of Sue Garfitt, general manager of Alpro, and Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone.
Sue Garfitt said the diets we have adopted are no longer sustainable for the planet, so we have to change the way we look at food production and consumption.
Garfitt added: “Millions of people are more aware of the personal and environmental benefits of plant-based foods and drinks. Our brand has a mission to promote more flexitarian diets. We want to keep bringing more choice, variety and taste, and that’s why innovation lies at the heart of what we do at Alpro.”
Emmanuel Faber, CEO of Danone, said he is very encouraged that policy-makers are beginning to recognise the importance and urgency of evolving the food system towards a more sustainable path, highlighting the European Farm2Fork strategy.
Faber said: “This initiative encourages consumers to adopt healthier and more sustainable eating habits, including more plant-based foods and drinks as part of the planetary diets scientific experts are calling for. It shows how the trend towards healthy and sustainable products is becoming unstoppable and the role food companies play in supporting flexitarian diets that are good for the planet and good for the health.”
Alpro’s ambition is to promote a measurable dietary shift towards more plant-based eating by 2025. Alpro’s commitments include:
- Catalyst for net-zero operations with concrete climate ambitions for zero carbon, zero water, zero waste
- Defining clear action plans for the transition to regenerative agriculture, focussing on biodiversity and water use in particular
- Closing the loop on packaging, with 100% recyclable packs (today, Alpro is at 76%) and plant-based alternatives for yogurt in a paper cup
- Reducing water footprint per product by 60% (the biggest water treatment installation in Flanders will be installed at the Alpro factory in Wevelgem in Spring 2021)
- Turning 50% of volumes into a recognised source of dietary fibre (today, Alpro is at 36%)
- Bringing even more diversity into the portfolio, using at least 9 different plant-based ingredients (today, Alpro uses 7)
- Applying transparent, easy-to-read Front Of Pack (FOP) nutrition labelling (such as Nutri-score with more than 90% green A and B scores for Alpro) to 100% of products