Terming India as an important market, Italian confectioner major Bauli today announced an 80 million euros investment here over the next five years.
The company has set up a manufacturing facility at Baramati in the state at an investment of 34 million euros.
"This is our first fully-owned plant outside of Italy," Bauli Group executive vice-president Michele Bauli said here.
The new plant will have a capacity of 12,000 tonne of croissants, which can be scaled up to 17,000 tonne in a short-time.
The company plans to make India an export hub to serve the Asia-Pacific region.
Bauli entered India in 2009 through a joint venture with Dream Bake but later changed the arrangement to co- manufacturing and distribution in the Northeast and the Eastern regions.
It sells croissants under the brand Moonfils in four flavours -- chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and orange -- and plans to expand it to eight more flavours.
Bauli chief executive Stefano Zancan said they expect India to be the second largest market after Italy over the next three years. He, however, declined to give revenue expectation from here.
Bauli is present in 70 countries with 200 products and 1,200 SKUs.
"The biscuit market is very saturated and we don't want to be in that. We are planning to launch soft cakes next year. We will look at other products possibly in the savoury segment," Zancan said.
The company, which is targeting the tier I & II cities, will also be launching vegetarian products by January.
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