NEW FACILITY: Making it Bigger

It was a balmy spring late-afternoon when Irish-based Glanbia Nutritionals opened its premix facility in Suzhou, amid the fanfare of ribbon cutting, lion dancing and feasting.

An hour’s drive from Shanghai, the state-of-the-art Glanbia Nutritionals premix unit is capable of manufacturing a full range of vitamin, mineral, nucleotide and amino acid premixes, and could well be Asia’s fi nest premix plant, says the company proudly.

Designed after one of the company’s own GMP approved plants in the Germany, the plant also has its own research and development laboratory, building on expertise from its European and US centers. R&D activities in the company’s sports nutritional and functional foods divisions are undertaken here. A six-month training stint in Germany for local staff ensures a thorough transfer of production knowledge. Quality systems are also in three languages—Chinese, English and German, to facilitate auditing and full transparency.



Barry Fitzsimons, regional director for Glanbia Asia-Pacific:

AFJ: Why is the Suzhou plant important to Glanbia in terms of its business strategy for the Asian markets?

It’s our first R&D facility in Asia and we have plans to develop further in the region. What we want to achieve with this plant is to offer a full suite of services to our customers here in Asia. We want to give them full access to quality and R&D systems, and offer the same level of service as we do for the European and US markets. In Asia, our key markets are Japan, China, South-east Asia and Oceania in that order.

AFJ: Share with us your plans to ‘develop further’ in Asia.

The Suzhou plant is our first exploratory step in Asia. Glanbia as a company is investing globally. The Suzhou plant follows our global strategy of continued growth in the next five to 10 years, and we will be looking for opportunities to invest further in the region.

AFJ: What are some key trends in nutrition that Glanbia has identified in the Asian market, and how are you positioning yourself to ride on these trends in the coming years?

What is becoming absolutely clear, both from this region and globally, is that food safety and quality is foremost in consumers’ minds. That’s what Glanbia is investing in and offering to our customers with a facility built for high-quality standards.

We see a general increase in consumption of dairy products and infant formula in the region. Sports nutrition is also increasing—people appreciate the link between nutrition and sports performance, with obesity becoming a bigger issue with the westernization of diets here in Asia. Also, as China is hosting the Olympic Games, the sports focus is getting bigger.



Another trend is convenience. We see this in any market that’s growing in affluence - the need for convenience grows as people are busier and working. For example, people are looking to consume traditional Chinese medicine but with greater convenience.

Dominic Mills, applications manager for Glanbia Nutritionals Suzhou:

AFJ: What aspects of the German plant have your incorporated into the Suzhou one?

We’ve employed the services of our German manager Wolfgang Kortus for the design of this plant. He had started Kortus Foods, which had been bought by Glanbia, and was involved in the design and commission of the plant. Some things that had been learnt in the course of operating the German plant were taken into consideration in designing the Suzhou one.



The similarities in design include having a vertical three-storey system where raw material inputs start at the top of the mixing flows, and the process flow starts from there. Our quality control system is ISO-based, a proven track record that we can rely on. This is the standard we use throughout Glanbia Nutritionals. It is audited by one of our largest customers and by SGS, a third party Swiss company. We should be certified HACCP by the end of May.

AFJ: Run us through a day-to-day operation at your plant. What plans are there to increase your current output?

At the moment, we’re running on a single shift consisting of four production staff. Besides these, we also have three laboratory staff who conduct quality checks, testing and sampling. We hope to be able to work on two shifts within the year.