“Much of the global retail food and beverage activities are concentrated in Asia,” said Jakob Thøisen, CEO, Palsgaard A/S. “All the research forecasts are pointing to per capita incomes growing exponentially in Asia, hence creating more middle-class and upper-middle class people who are willing to spend.”
Thøisen was in Singapore as part of a trip to Asia to introduce the new factory and its business implications to partners at a regional Agents’ and Distributors’ meeting.
“We have seen double-digit growth of our business in this region even during the financial and economic crises that took place in 1997 and in 2008,” said Romil Jagunap, MD, Asia Pacific, Palsgaard Asia-Pacific. “Food manufacturers in Asia are getting increasingly sophisticated and more demanding. They want to produce high quality food products at a relatively low cost. Consumers here are also becoming more health-conscious.”
Palsgaard has already invested in a Regional Application Centre in Singapore worth more than US$8.2m for dairy, ice cream, soya, bakery and confectionery applications, and is planning on doing more in Asia. A pilot plant for margarine is currently in the works.
The company is also in the final phase of constructing a fully automated 20,000-metric-tonne emulsifier plant in Johor Bahru to complement the Singapore facilities and satisfy customer demand for high quality emulsifiers and stabilisers.
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