Asia’s leading dairy producer, Yili Group, held an opening ceremony to celebrate the official launch of the first phase of the Yili Indonesia Dairy Production Base. Upon completion of its second phase, the production base will become the country’s largest ice cream factory with a daily production capacity of four million ice cream products.
The state-of-the-art facility was established due 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.
“Local consumers’ clear preference for and trust in our products has reinforced Yili’s confidence about our long-term investment and development in Indonesia,” said Pan Gang, the Chairman and President of Yili Group, in a virtual speech delivered at the ceremony. “Yili is always dedicated to following the highest standards to drive quality, sustainable development over the long term and establishing localized 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.
An Innovative, Green, and Open Factory
As Yili’s first self-built plant in Southeast Asia, Yili Indonesia Dairy has adopted cutting-edge technology and equipment, including the Internet of Things 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, palletizing, and warehousing.
The construction of infrastructure and buildings has been undertaken strictly 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.
As part of its efforts to build a sustainable and environmentally friendly production facility, Yili Indonesia Dairy has built a wastewater treatment system with a daily treatment capacity of 2,800 tons. Reclaimed water is then used for the irrigation of plants in the factory.
To ensure high levels of visibility and transparency, the site will be open to the public whenever the factory is in full operation, and consumers can watch the whole production process as it unfolds.
Ready to Grow Together with Local Partners
While deepening its presence in global markets, Yili follows the principle of “global mindsets and local operations”, with a focus on building highly localized factories that benefit local communities.
Today, Yili Indonesia Dairy has a total of 383 employees, with local employees accounting for 95% of the workforce. The project is expected to create more than 5,000 new jobs for local communities, directly and indirectly.
Yili Indonesia Dairy is also actively pursuing further opportunities for cooperation with local partners. To date, the company has already established cooperative relationships with more than 90 suppliers in Indonesia. Moving forward, its partnerships will expand to local distributors with 200,000 sales outlets. Yili is also dedicated to promoting the highly rated Indonesian flavors to global consumers through its worldwide marketing channels.
Yili’s “Southeast Asia Dual Centers” Established
The completion of Yili Indonesia Dairy sets up another key pillar for Yili’s development in the Indonesian and the broader Southeast Asian markets. Together with the company’s Thailand-based ice cream production base, Yili’s “Southeast Asian dual centers” and Southeast Asia Innovation Center have taken shape, and are expected to accelerate product manufacturing and R&D in the region.
As a platform designed to facilitate cooperation on innovation with universities and R&D institutions throughout the region, Yili Southeast Asia Innovation Center will also work together closely with Yili’s innovation centers spreading across China, Japan, Europe and Oceania, with the aim of rolling out more localized innovation solutions that are carefully tailored to fulfill consumer needs.
In the pursuit of building a “global health ecosystem”, Yili Group has been dedicated to reaching markets where consumers’ demands for quality dairy products have yet to be fulfilled. As an important base facilitating Yili’s engagement with global markets, Yili Indonesia Dairy will coordinate and share resources with other subsidiaries of Yili Group to serve consumers with world-class products and share its business success with partners.
