Asia’s leading dairy producer, China-based Yili Group, recently held an opening ceremony to celebrate the official first phase opening of Yili Indonesia Dairy Production Base.
During the 1st Phase, it will have a production capacity of 159 tons per day which will more than double to 343 tons per day in the 2nd Phase, or 4 million units of ice cream. This will make it the largest ice cream plant in Indonesia.
The state-of-the-art facility was established to cater to the surging popularity of Joyday ice cream, a brand that has rapidly expanded its reach to 260 local cities in 26 provinces, covering nearly all of Indonesia, since its entry into the market in 2018.
Pan Gang, the Chairman and President of Yili Group said, “Local consumers’ clear preference for and trust in our products has reinforced Yili’s confidence about our long-term investment and development in Indonesia. Yili is always dedicated to following the highest standards to drive quality, sustainable development over the long term and establishing localised operations that benefit the communities where we operate. This ensures that we can better serve local consumers and make deep contributions to socio-economic development throughout the region.”
Catering to local needs while leveraging the global resources brought together by Yili Group, the Indonesia-based hub aims to speed up Joyday’s product manufacturing, R&D and marketing efforts, with more new products to come, in order to bring more unique services and consumer experiences to local customers.
As Yili’s first self-built plant in Southeast Asia, Yili Indonesia Dairy has adopted cutting-edge technology and equipment, including IoT and big data analytics, to build an innovative and smart factory. The production base integrates advanced digital technologies throughout its entire production chain. Robotics solutions are introduced to provide automated packing, palletising, and warehousing. Building and infrastructure construction is done in line with Yili Group’s global quality management standards. To date, the factory has already passed the ISO22000, HALAL, and BPOM certifications and been rated A grade by LPPOM MUI, the largest food and drug certification agency in Indonesia. To promote sustainability, Yili has also built a wastewater treatment system with a daily treatment capacity of 2,800 tonnes. Reclaimed water is then used for the irrigation of plants in the factory.
While deepening its presence in global markets, Yili follows the principle of “global mindsets and local operations,” with a focus on building highly localised factories that benefit local communities. Currently, its Indonesian operation has 383 employees with 95% being locals. The project is expected to create more than 5,000 new jobs.
Yili Indonesia Dairy is also actively pursuing further opportunities for cooperation with local partners. It has already established cooperative relationships with more than 90 suppliers in Indonesia which include suppliers of milk powder, sugar, oil, cocoa products and packaging materials. Presently, Yili sources up to 65% of its raw materials from domestic sources. Its partnerships also expand to local distributors with 200,000 retail outlets. Yili is also dedicated to promoting the highly rated Indonesian flavors from tropical fruits like coconuts and durians to chilli, spices and curry to global consumers through its worldwide marketing channels.
Together with the company’s Thailand-based ice cream production base, Yili Indonesia Dairy will be one of the company’s ‘dual centers’ in Southeast Asia, accelerating R&D and serving local needs while also aiming to expand into neighboring markets throughout the region.
As an innovation platform designed to facilitate cooperation with universities and R&D institutions throughout the region, the dual centers will also work together closely with Yili’s innovation centers spread across China, Japan, Europe and Oceania, with the aim of rolling out more localised innovation solutions that are carefully tailored to fulfill consumer needs.
In 2021, Yili has retained its position within the global Top 5 largest dairy players. Yili is set to record a historic breakthrough of Rmb 100 billion (US$15.7 billion) in total revenue this year.
Why Yili chose Indonesia ?
- Large consumer market of 270 million population
- High growth as per capita milk consumption at 16.9kg is lower than many other ASEAN countries
