Unilever, one of the top 500 global companies,
is planning to build a new ice cream factory. This factory is expected to be an
automatic and intelligent ice cream factory with a flexible manufacturing
system. To achieve this, Unilever will invest 100 million euros for the
establishment of a production base in Taicang, China. The production base will
become a major food production base of Unilever China. The first phase of the
ice cream factory program is expected to finish in the beginning of 2022 and begin
operation accordingly.
This investment is going to be the biggest adjustment for
Unilever in the ice cream industry in more than 20 years. In 1996, Wall’s, an
ice cream brand under Unilever, invested and built a project for achieving an
annual capacity of 42,000 tonnes of ice cream production in Taicang. After
that, Unilever underwent several upgrades, including equipment renovation and
capacity expansion, for the original factory in 2003 and 2013, so as to further
enhance the capacity of ice cream production.
Wall’s ice cream expected to surge in both production and
consumption in China
The president of Unilever in the North Asian district announced:
“We combine the productive power of world-famous ice cream with China’s digital
intelligent technology. The automatic and intelligent ice cream factory that we
build will become the first one in the world to have a flexible manufacturing
system. (…) By 2039, all of our products, from raw material procurement to our marketing
process, will achieve the goal of releasing zero emissions, which is also the
future direction of the food production base in Taicang.“
The vice president of Unilever in the North Asian district indicated
that the sales volume of Wall’s ice cream shows a double digit increase every
year in China, and food has been a focus in the Chinese market. Furthermore,
the sales volume of Cornetto ice cream has already reached RMB one billion,
while the sales volume of Magnum ice cream will also reach RMB one billion this
year.
Unilever restarts production after COVID-19，begins 24 hour production
The vice president of Unilever in the North Asian district also
said that the first half of a year is usually the peak of production and sales
for ice cream companies. However, during the time of COVID-19, the ice cream
factory located in Taicang was closed, which overlapped with the spring
festival in China. The ice cream factory resumed business on March 10. In order
to make up for the working time that has been lost, the factory continued to
produce ice cream 24 hours per day. In addition, Unilever provided training
classes for workers in the local hotels and restaurants as well as packaging
suppliers from Shanghai so that they could help to increase ice cream
production.
“China is the first
country in the world where Unilever resumed work and production. The focus of
Unilever’s second quarter is sustainable growth, and the project of building an
unmanned ice cream factory will be a great encouragement for everyone in the
world,” the president of Unilever in the North Asian district said. “Unilever
is always optimistic about the prospects of its business development in China.
In the future, Unilever will continue to increase its investment in the country.
In the coming ten years, the Chinese market will take up a large percentage of
our business. We are confident in Chinese consumers and have faith in the
development of our business.”
For more information on China’s ice cream
market, please check our Dairy
Products China News.