Lotus Bakeries sets up new factory in Thailand for ambitious growth plans

 

According to Lotus Bakeries, the APAC regions have become increasingly important for Lotus Biscoff over the past few years. Lotus Bakeries already has sales offices and its own teams in China and South Korea, while the Lotus Bakeries team in Hong Kong manages the other countries in the region in partnership with its distributors. Both Lotus Biscoff Cookies and Lotus Biscoff Spread have established a growing presence in the region.

 

Over the last ten years, revenue for Lotus Biscoff has grown by an average of 13% and it is now present in more than 70 countries worldwide, with sales of more than one million Euros in 28 of those countries. The growth has been achieved in recent years on the five continents where Lotus Bakers already operates, combined with the broad potential for international growth still to be realised, supports its belief that it can achieve this ambition.

 

According to the company, its growth ambitions are accompanied by substantial investments in additional production capacity. In addition to the investments in Belgium and North America, Lotus Bakers has revealed its plans today to start up a further production facility for Biscoff on its third continent, which is Asia.

 

The rationale for a third Biscoff plant in Asia is straightforward because the plant will provide the necessary capacity for the group, bring fresher cookies to the consumer, and will be able to respond faster and better to local opportunities, save transport costs and further reduce the ecological footprint to the company. Recent experience with the construction and start-up of the second Biscoff plant in the United States proves the Group with a project framework and strongly reduces the project risk.

 

In recent months, the project team has been working in an initial phase to select the country within this large region. At the end of this exercise, Thailand was selected as its new home country for this investment. The criteria for selecting Thailand were its central location in the region, the existing presence of strong food industry, the associated availability of raw materials, the country's culture and labour regulations and cost.

 

In its second phase, the site for the factory's construction was also chosen. According to Lotus Bakeries, it has reached an agreement n principle with an internationally renowned developer for the purchase of a piece of industrial land in Chonburi province. This province is part of the so-called Eastern Economic Corridor that is being developed b the Thai government as a key economic zone for the region. The corridor lies east of Bangkok and runs southwards along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. There is a sufficiently large pool of labour available, while good access to the international port of Laem Chabang is another important asset in facilitating future exports.