Bimbo Opens $86 Million USD Plant in Colombia

After making an $86 million USD investment, Mexican bakery giant Bimbo (BMV: BIMBO) today opened a new plant in Colombia. Located in Tenjo about 20 miles outside of Bogotá, the facility received an inaugural visit from Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to commemorate the completion of a massive baking facility that took around a year to build, according to the company.

Photo: Bimbo CEO Daniel Servitje welcomes Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to the company’s new plant in Tenjo. (Credit: Presidencia de la República)

Owned by the Mexico City-based Grupo Bimbo, the new bakery will primarily produce hamburger buns, various snack foods, and — new for the firm in Colombia — puff pastries, a product segment that Bimbo believes it can compete in nationally.

Fernando López, the country head of Bimbo in Colombia, said that the plant will generate 270 new jobs immediately. In time, López says this number may hit 350 in addition to the roughly 3,800 people already employed by the company in Colombia. He believes the new location will also lead to 1,700 indirect jobs.

The executive added that the company was pleased to be putting its second plant in the city of Tenjo. The new center, which it is calling “Tenjo II,” now sits in the same town where it opened its original, and still operating, facility in the country in 1996.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos takes a tour of the new Bimbo plant in Tenjo, Colombia. (Photo credit: Presidencia de la República)

The location is strategic as well as sentimental. Bimbo says that the close proximity of the two bakeries will drive efficiency in terms of logistics and distribution in a country where transportation is often difficult.

“The Tenjo II plant is already a source of pride for Grupo Bimbo, and we are committed to continue working everyday…to build a sustainable, highly productive, and human enterprise,” said Daniel Servitje, president and CEO of Grupo Bimbo.

Grupo Bimbo is one of the biggest companies in Mexico and has a global footprint as a breadmaker and food distributor. It has controlled the Sara Lee name for baked goods since acquiring the rights for nearly $1 billion USD in 2010 and produces WonderBread in Mexico, among other well-known brands.

Photo credit: Presidencia de la República