Nestlé’s Wagner Frozen Pizza Facility Expansion, Otzenhausen

The new Nestlé Wagner frozen pizza manufacturing facility was inaugurated in August 2013. Image courtesy of Nestlé.

The new pizza manufacturing facility has a total floor space of 6,160 square metres. Image courtesy of Nestlé.

The new facility produces about 70 million Wagner-branded products a year. Image courtesy of Nestlé.

Nestlé Wagner opened a new frozen pizza manufacturing facility at Wagner’s plant in Nonnweiler, Otzenhausen, Germany, in August 2013.

The facility opened as part of the expansion of Nestlé’s global frozen pizza business and frozen foods research and development facilities in the US.

Wagner initially established the manufacturing factory for the German frozen food sector in 1969. Nestlé acquired a 49% stake in German frozen pizza supplier Wagner in 2005, and later increased the share to 75% in 2010.

Details of Nestlé’s Wagner pizza facility

The new facility has a total floor space of 6,160m². It produces about 70 million Wagner-branded products a year. It provides additional employment to 50 people. The products produced at the facility will be marketed in Europe.

The new facility has been constructed with an investment of about €50m ($66m) and has two production lines. The existing plant produces about 280 million pizzas a year and records annual sales of about €400m ($534).

The new production lines will increase the pizza production up to 350 million a year.

The new production lines are equipped with sophisticated and advanced technology for manufacturing frozen pizzas. The facility also has the latest noise and environmental protection features.

Construction of Nestlé’s German frozen pizza plant

The pre-construction activity on the site began in September 2011. The actual construction began with the laying of foundation stone in November 2011. The construction was completed within two years and the new facility was inaugurated in August 2013.

The construction work was carried out by 70 companies, which also included 30 local companies. More than 600 construction workers were employed.

More than 8,500m³ of concrete and 1,000t of steel was used for the construction of the facility. The outer shell of the building consists of about 3,210m² of aerated concrete wall panels.

The building is also installed with 1.2 million cable connectors and 230km of electric cables.

Products produced at the pizza manufacturing facility

The new frozen food factory produces pizza brands such as Big Pizza, Piccolinis and Die Backfrische. The pizza varieties range from the classic brick-oven pizza to the baking fresh pizza appetisers, as well as La Pizza Rusticale, Unsere Natur and NaturLust.

The plant also manufactures pizza varieties that are organic, wholegrain and lactose-free. The products are manufactured without adding any kind of flavour enhancers and artificial flavourings.

Some of the best natural raw ingredients are used in manufacturing the pizzas.

Sustainability of Nestlé’s frozen pizza plant

The new facility was built in compliance with the latest energy-saving and sustainability techniques. It includes an energy centre which utilises less water and energy than older production facilities.

The plant is also facilitated with a heat recovery system that absorbs the heat produced in the pizza manufacturing process and feeds the recovered energy back into the production process.

German frozen pizza market

Germany had the largest share in the frozen food market in Europe in 2010, with total sales recorded of €11.4bn ($15bn), according to the Germany Trade and Investment report.

The total share of pizzas in the retail frozen food market in Germany was 32.2%. The pizza market in Germany is predominantly controlled by Nestlé and Dr Oetker.

Nestlé holds about 30% of the pizza market in Germany. The sales growth for Nestlé accounted for more than 400% of the German pizza market since the acquisition of the Wagner brand in 2005.

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