The Nestlé coffee giant says the investment will support international development in the coming years, and meet increasing demand for premium coffee.
The construction of the second production hall is due to start in June 2021, and the 10 new production lines for the Vertuo and Professional ranges will become fully operational by June 2022. The new production hall surface area will cover 1 hectare – the equivalent of 1.5 football fields – for filling and packaging lines, roasting and logistics.
The expansion will lead to the creation of 300 new direct jobs over the next 10 years: adding to the 368 employees currently working at the site.
Swiss production sites
Nepresso coffees distributed worldwide are produced in Switzerland across three sites: Romont, Orbe and Avenches.
The Romont factory was inaugurated in 2015, with four new production lines and a new Product Development Centre added in the last two years.
Romont was the first production center in Switzerland – and therefore also the first factory for Nestlé in Switzerland - to achieve the LEED Gold certification (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) in 2015. The new production hall will be built based on the same LEED principles.
The certification not only covers the energy and water-efficiency of an industrial building, but also considers employees’ health and wellbeing at the workplace, and infrastructure for environmentally friendly mobility. Some examples of the initiatives at the site include the use of 20% recycled construction materials and an 18% decrease of the site’s energy consumption thanks to heat recovery from the roasters, triple glazing and the use of LED lighting.
All three Nespresso production centers are ‘zero waste to landfill’ and production processes have been optimized to ensure heat and water are recovered and reused whenever possible. In the existing facility in Romont, the heat from the coffee roasters is recovered and used to pre-heat the green coffee and the factory itself. Any excess heat is redistributed to the local community.
