Hellmann’s Jumps on Growing Squeeze Bottle Market With Line Investment

Squeeze bottle condiment dispensers have skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. They’re convenient, easy to use, and well-suited to a growing food service industry, especially when it comes to safety and hygiene. Though North America and Europe still dominate the squeeze bottle market, emerging markets are taking off like gangbusters.

This is an opportunity that Hellmann’s is jumping on, powering up a new factory line to take advantage of the growing mayonnaise squeeze bottle market in Brazil, which jumped by 30% in volume last year, according to a Nielsen report. The new line at the Hellmann’s Pouso Alegre plant in Brazil is a €14.7 million ($15.9 million) investment that will increase production capacity of its squeeze bottle format by double digits.

Hellmann's

“We are growing at double digits across the business in Brazil, mainly in squeeze bottle lines,” says Edmundo Mollo, factory director at the Pouso Alegre plant. “Every month, we are gaining market share and we need more capacity.”

Performance optimization

The investment from Hellmann’s, part of Unilever, will support the latest technological advancements for the new line, according to Mollo.

The Pouso Alegre plant is already a leader in sustainable operational excellence, thanks to the state-of-the-art biodigester put in last year. Since its installment, the biodigester has delivered 100% of the thermal renewable energy needed to power the plant.

Now, thanks to the new investment, the factory can enhance operational excellence further. “It gives us the opportunity to further optimize in terms of performance, equipment components, and data collection,” Mollo says. Machine learning and artificial intelligence will enable continual improvement of the factory’s efficiency, he adds.