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Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies are among the snack foods made at the Mondelez International plant in Henrico County

The Mondelez International plant on Laburnum Avenue in Henrico County, which opened in 1973, employs about 500 workers.

Mondelez International Inc. plans to make a $122.5 million investment in its operations in eastern Henrico County, reinforcing that its cookie and cracker bakery here has become a key strategic facility for the global company.

The plant on the Laburnum Avenue plant will get a 68,000-square-foot expansion to house a high-speed, modern production line mostly for its Oreo cookie-making operations. The plant makes popular snack foods such as Ritz and Wheat Thin crackers and Chips Ahoy! and Nila wafer cookies.

The company also will open a 490,000-square-foot sales fulfillment and distribution center about 3 miles away—in the first phase of the Sauer Industrial Center at the northeast quadrant of Airport Drive and Pocahontas Parkway. The warehouse is slated to open next year and will create about 80 new jobs.

The investment was announced Thursday afternoon by Gov. Ralph Northam’s office.

The Richmond area has and continues to be an important geographic location for the company’s manufacturing operations, said Mondelez spokesperson Laurie M. Guzzinati.

“This investment is a reflection of the further commitment to Richmond as part of our U.S. manufacturing network to supported key brands and priority brands for our business,” she said.

The Henrico plant took on an even more important role for Mondelez this year when the company closed two aging plants in New Jersey and Georgia.

As a result of those closures, the Henrico plant has become a strategic geographic site for the company’s operations on the East Coast, Guzzinati said. For instance, Mondelez is shifting its key Oreo production from New Jersey to Henrico.

The plant, which opened in 1973, employs about 500 workers.

It had been owned by Nabisco and later by Kraft Foods Inc. It now is part of Mondelez, which was created when Kraft Foods split into two companies in 2012.

In 2014, the company invested almost $50 million in the plant to add a state-of-the-art manufacturing line for Ritz crackers and to modernize some other manufacturing assets.

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Ritz crackers and Oreo cookies are among the snack foods made at the Mondelez International plant in Henrico County

The Mondelez International plant on Laburnum Avenue in Henrico County, which opened in 1973, employs about 500 workers.

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