Riviana Foods Inc. announced that it has completed the first phase of its $80.6 million investment in a start-of-the-art processing and packaging plant in Memphis. The first phase consisted of renovating approximately 20,000sq-ft of the plant to double its current capacity to produce Minute® ready-to-serve rice cups.
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Minute® ready-to-serve rice cups come in a wide assortment of varieties and delicious flavors that are popular with today's consumers and meet needs for on-the-go convenience. Riviana US sales of ready-to-serve products, which include both cup and pouch formats, was the fastest growing business in the segment in 2023 with an increase of almost 19% in volume and has continued at that pace this year. This was possible through Riviana's significant increase in investment in consumer advertising and promotional activities in the US market. And most recently, to support this business expansion, Riviana has added operational capacity.
Work on the second phase of Riviana's investment in the Memphis plant commenced earlier this year and when completed, will add approximately 65,000sq-ft to the plant and introduce new production capacity for its ready-to-serve pouch product lines of its Tilda®, Carolina® and Mahatma® rice brands. The expansion of the Memphis plant is expected to be completed early next year with the first batch of ready-to-serve pouch products rolling off the new, modern processing and packaging lines by the first quarter 2025.
