Nestle Indonesia adds $220 million to investments

JAKARTA/ZURICH (Reuters) -Nestle Indonesia, a subsidiary of Swiss conglomerate Nestle, has topped up its investment in the country by $220 million, to build a new factory and expand production in three other facilities, the government said on Thursday.

The investment followed an earlier $100 million commitment in 2020 to increase production by 25%, Indonesia's Investment Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement.

The company started the factory's construction in Batang, Central Java, on Thursday. It hopes to start production of Bear Brand liquid milk and Milo and Nescafe ready-to-drink beverages by 2023.

"Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we are optimistic about the growth opportunities in Indonesia," Ganesan Ampalavanar, the market head of Nestle Indonesia, said in a separate statement.

Nestle said it wanted to create about 200 new jobs and would use Indonesian raw materials wherever possible.

(Reporting by Tabita Diela in Jakarta and Silke Koltrowitz in Zurich; Editing by Martin Petty, Robert Birsel)