Atria’s new poultry plant has cost more than the Finland-based poultry processor initially anticipated.

The three-hectare factory addition to the company’s site in the town of Nurmo has come with an investment of around €165m ($183.3m), compared to the circa €130m envisaged when the plans were first announced back in 2019.

Completed on schedule and now open for business, the facility has the capacity to process 15,000 birds an hour. The Helsinki-listed business claims from arrival at the plant, chickens can be processed in as quickly as four hours to get to the customer for next day delivery.

The group said the investment in the site is its largest to date. “Atria needed more capacity as the consumption of poultry products has been growing for decades, both in Finland and in export markets,” the company said as it announced the site’s opening.

“The new factory will increase Atria Finland's poultry production capacity by approximately 40%.”

Atria added that traceability is key, with the processing of birds from an individual farm tracked to appear on the end label of packaging.

“In this operation, we have a production facility that utilises the latest technology and will be the best in the world in the future,” Mika Ala-Fossi, the managing director of Atria Finland, said.

Atria operates through three business divisions to serve particular markets: Finland, Sweden, and Denmark and Estonia. It supplies its namesake brand along with the likes of Jyva and Wilhelm, amongst others.

In its half-year results issued in July, the company said it had closed its poultry plant in Sahalahti and transferred processing to its new facility at Nurmo. In February, Atria revealed it would acquire the prepared foods company Gooh from Swedish agri-food business Lantmännen, a deal that closed in May.

Sales for the six months through June were down 1.6% at €871.2m. EBIT rose 26% to €26.4m, while the margin increased to 3% from 2.4%.

Net profit after tax climbed 18% to €18.4m.