China: Unilever to invest $112 million to expand ice cream factory

Unilever, the multinational consumer goods giant, has announced an investment of $112 million to expand its ice cream production facility in Taicang, China.

Built in 1996 and expanded in 2003 and 2013, this new expansion will cover an area of 66,000 square metres including factory lines, warehouses, offices, and will produce 150,000 tones of ice cream per year.

According to Unilever, this investment “marks one of the biggest expansion efforts in the Chinese ice cream market in recent times, and the site is expected to become a larger manufacturing hub for Unilever”.

Rohit Jawa, executive vice-president of Unilever North Asia, said: “We will build the new Taicang manufacturing site into the world’s first ice cream factory integrating automation, intelligence, and agility”.

Han Fangjun, vice-president of supply chain of Unilever North Asia, added: “As the world’s largest ice cream seller, Unilever looks forward to combining its world-class ice cream production capacity with China’s digital intelligent technology to build a brand new flexible production line”.

Sources: FoodBev