Mlinotest, a leading Slovenian food group, inaugurated a fully renovated dried pasta factory at its home location in Ajdovščina in the west of the country on 10 May. The €7 million investment almost doubles the facility's production capacity.

The facility has been thoroughly renovated and expanded with two new production lines and two packaging lines. Shorter production times will result in significantly higher production output. The two new lines can produce 1,000 and 400 kilos of pasta per hour.

The investment is energy efficient; the company will use less energy for heating because it has switched from gas to biomass and a closed cooling system will consume less water.

"The investment brings a higher volume of production and thus a chance to get new buyers, develop new products and increase the volume of the existing products.

"With higher productivity, more products can be produced with the same number of workers," said Robert Rutar, director of flour milling and pasta making.

There are 30 workers in dried pasta production, and they are being trained to operate the new machines. None will be laid off despite much less physical work involved.

Addressing the opening ceremony, President Nataša Pirc Musar stressed the increasing importance of the food industry, which she said was of strategic importance in the new global market situation.

Mlinotest started planning this investment in 2017, when it opened a new factory for fresh pasta.

The group sells three-quarters of its pasta products in Slovenia and exports the rest, mostly to Croatia and Italy.

The company's CEO Danilo Kobal announced more large investments to follow this year, totalling some €6 million, including the overhaul of the cereal mill.

Mlinotest, whose beginnings go back to the mid-19th century, is a leading Slovenian food-processing company. Employing 670 workers, it also makes flour, bread and biscuits.