Valio to close former Raisio fava-beans site

Valio plans to close the fava-beans factory the Finnish dairy company recently bought from Raisio and shift production to another facility.

The group acquired the plant in Kauhava from Finland food peer Raisio earlier this year when it bought the Härkis and Beanit plant-protein brands.

The Kauhava site is expected to close by the end of this year at the earliest, Valio said, adding the transfer to another plant in Joensuu is intended to enhance “production efficiency and profitability”.

All 11 employees at the Kauhava factory will be affected by the closure, Valio said.

"With the planned relocation of production, we are continuing to pursue production efficiency and profitability improvements as well as flexibility in our operations in line with our strategy," Juha Penttilä, Valio’s executive vice president for operations, said.

"In Joensuu, we can leverage our long-standing expertise in producing innovative plant-based products."

Penttilä added that Valio will try and offer jobs to the 11 affected people at other company sites.

Additionally, Valio said production of plant-based products at its Vantaa factory will also shift to Joensuu over the "next few years".

“This allows us to make use of existing knowledge and equipment, and to achieve long-term synergies, including with the production currently overseen at the Kauhava plant,” Penttilä said.

When the sale of the Härkis and Beanit brands was announced in February, Raisio reported the assets generated net sales of €4.5m ($5.2m today) in 2024, down from €5.5m in 2023, with a “comparable” EBIT loss of €2.6m.

Raisio had previously acquired Verso, the owner of those brands, from Norway’s Kavli in 2021.

The Joensuu factory, which currently employs around 200 people, produces approximately a third of Valio’s cheeses, totaling about 25 million kilos annually of cheese blocks, consumer-packaged cheeses, and cream cheeses, according to the statement.

The main products produced at Joensuu include Valio Polar cheeses, Valio Salaneuvos cheeses, and Valio Viola cream cheeses, alongside milk powders.

By year-end, the facility will begin manufacturing cheese slices from the Vantaa factory, with plans to later produce the grated cheese brand MiFU and Oddlygood Veggie products, the statement from Valio added.

Valio is owned by approximately 3,200 Finnish dairy farms. The company has a workforce of 4,200, with 3,600 based in Finland.

"Valio to close former Raisio fava-beans site" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.