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Americana to invest $100m in Saudi French fries factory

By Pramod Kumar
Company executives laying the foundation stone for the new frozen fries factory in Riyadh Americana
Company executives laying the foundation stone for the new frozen fries factory in Riyadh

A subsidiary of fast-food brand operator Americana will invest SAR375 million ($100 million) in a greenfield frozen French fries manufacturing plant in Riyadh.

The new processing factory will be set up in Sudair Industrial and Business City as a collaboration between Agricultural Growth and Processing Company, an Americana unit, and Egypt-based potato processing company Farm Frites.

The investment will contribute to the kingdom’s food security by boosting the local production of potatoes.

The facility will be built on a plot exceeding 100,000 sq m with latest equipment and advanced technology to produce frozen French fries and other specialty potato products.

The plant will commence operations in the first quarter of 2026 and have an annual production capacity of 70,000 metric tonnes in phase one, with plans for future expansion.

In October, quarterly profits at Americana Restaurants, which is listed on the UAE and Saudi stock exchanges, shrunk by 54 percent year on year to $37.4 million in the third quarter of 2024, as the boycott of US brands over perceived support for Israel continued to impact operations in the Middle East.

Revenue for the quarter was $555 million, down 15 percent from the same period a year earlier. 

Americana’s KFC and Pizza Hut outlets have been targeted with boycotts due to the Gaza conflict, in part because Yum! Brands, the chain’s parent company in the US, has invested in Israeli startups.

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