Fonterra Invests US$4.85 Million To Boost Capacity

By Azizul Ahmad SHAH ALAM (Selangor, Malaysia), Sept 23 (Bernama) -- Dairy giant Fonterra Brands (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd has invested another US$4.85 million (RM20 million) to boost capacity by upgrading its existing plant here, says Managing Director Jose Miguel Porraz Lando. The project involving Fonterra's 'Susumas' plant has just commenced and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year. "Fonterra's investment this round, of another RM20 million, involves step by step changes to boost capacity for ambient products as well as ensure the highest health, food safety and quality standards in manufacturing and operations. "With the new capacity, we should be quite fine to cater to the demand that we foresee for Malaysia and export markets for seven to eight years," he told Bernama. Over the last five years, Fonterra has reportedly invested close to US$14.56 million (RM60 million) into upgrading its two plants in the country -- 'Susumas' and 'Dairymas'. Susumas has a current capacity of 30,000 tonnes of milk powder. "Susumas imports raw ingredients from New Zealand, then mixes and blends them according to the recipe here, followed by the packaging process, while Dairymas produces yoghurt and ultra-high temperature processing (UHT) dairy products," he said. These translate into a wider breadth of dairy chilled and ambient products, including Anmum, Anlene, Fernleaf (CalciYum and Solivite), Chesdale and Anchor Butter. Porraz Lando said Fonterra Malaysia is now one of the world's largest global manufacturers and marketers of dairy-based consumer and food products for customers around the world. Malaysia is among Fonterra's leading markets. "Products from Susumas and Dairymas are also exported to 16 countries, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius and Hong Kong," he said. Fonterra in Malaysia has 750 employees and given that the country is its leading market, Porraz Lando said a new division was recently set up here with new roles to provide support services in finance, human resource and procurement for the group's operations in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. "In many places including New Zealand, we chose to reduce a number of jobs and streamline operations, but Malaysia stood out and we created almost 60 new positions last year. "We have been here (Malaysia) for 40 years, seen a lot of ups and downs, that's normal for a country's development. We are here for the long run and would continue to invest," he added. --BERNAMA