Important step toward the largest and most sustainable malting location in Europe

Holland Malt announced on 14th July that it will expand its malting plant in Eemshaven. Construction will begin in July. The expansion follows on the growth that Holland Malt has made in recent years, and will lead to doubling of its capacity between now and the end of 2017. With this, the malt producer strengthens its position in Europe and paves the way for further internationalisation.

Growth target
Holland Malt has two malting locations: in Lieshout and in Eemshaven. The expansion set to begin next week will involve construction of two additional state-of-the-art towers in Eemshaven to double capacity from 140,000 tons to 280,000 tons of malt per year. This will bring the total capacity of the two malting locations to 405,000 tons of malt per year. Holland Malt has already been growing strongly in recent years by investing in quality and efficiency and a varied product portfolio. In the past five years, Holland Malt has successfully increased the capacity of its current production locations by 10%. Planning preventive maintenance more intelligently now enables the current malting plant to run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The commissioning of a fully automatic packaging line and further automation in both production and logistics also led to a step up in efficiency.

Developments in the global beer market
Jos Jennissen, Managing Director Holland Malt: “As the global population grows, so does beer consumption, which means there is growing demand for malt. Over the 2014-2025 period, we expect growth of worldwide beer consumption by about 15%. We also see trends such as ‘premiumisation’ and the rise of specialty and craft beers, which involve using more malt in the beer. And the growth in emerging markets also presents major opportunities for our maltings. We have high ambitions: we want to make Holland Malt Eemshaven the largest and most sustainable malting location in Europe from which we serve our home region of Europe as well as the entire world. Our customers are growing and we want to grow with them as a long-term primary supplier. This expansion will help us do that!”

Strategic location
Today, 50% of Holland Malt’s production is sold to the European market. The remaining 50% goes to regions such as Asia, Africa and Latin America. The location at the deep sea port of Eemshaven gives Holland Malt a strong logistical base, both for the delivery of malting barley and the export of malt.

Willem Swinkels, Finance & Operations Director of Holland Malt, explains: “We serve customers all over the world. We have created this strong starting position through a combination of our strategic location, the diversity of regions where we can source our malting barley, and our ambitions regarding energy. For instance, our close partnership with Dutch farmers united within Agrifirm enables us to guarantee a solid supply of high quality malting barley, and we also have the flexibility to use malting barley from outside the Netherlands so we can always deliver optimal quality. Speciality beers are becoming increasingly important and we want to be able to serve every beer segment, whether alcohol-free beer, pilsner or dark beer.”

Swinkels continues: “Eemshaven also offers tremendous opportunities with regard to energy. The large international energy companies are based in Eemshaven, and we need to work together with them and the other local industry to create a more sustainable energy economy. We have a lot of confidence in the future and we look forward to sustainable growth.”

Operational in early 2018
Holland Malt produces various types of malt. Eemshaven primarily produces pilsner malt. In Lieshout, 15% of the total production consists of special malt. Holland Malt is active within various sustainable malting barley programmes and also invests in sustainable logistics. Most of the malting barley for Holland Malt is already delivered by water. The rest is supplied to Holland Malt directly from the land without intervening storage locations. The expansion in Eemshaven will directly and indirectly create more employment in the region. The work will be completed by the end of 2017, and the new facilities will be operational in early 2018.

The malt factory of Holland Malt in Eemshaven