Danone Spends Millions To Prepare Evian Bottling Plant For Growth

In a move to facilitate increased production capacity and product growth, Danone is spending €280 million ($335 million) to modernize the Evian bottled water plant in Evian-les-Bains, France, by 2020. CEO Emmanuel Faber said the company, pressured by investors to produce better returns, expects sales to continue double-digit growth rates in the U.S. as consumers spurn sugary soft drinks and governments use taxation to discourage sugar consumption. Euromonitor forecasts a global bottled water market of $230 billion by 2021, an increase of 16 percent. Modernization of the Evian plant is expected to boost annual output capacity to two billion bottles, from current 1.5 billion.