Guan Chong’s UK industrial chocolate plant commences operations
04 Dec 2023
Guan Chong Bhd’s (GCB) industrial chocolate factory in the UK has commenced operations, and set its sights on the country’s £2.2 billion (RM13 billion) chocolate market.
The cocoa grinder and industrial chocolate player said that to capitalise on the UK’s growing chocolate demand, GCB had invested about £34 million to set up the 16,000 tonnes annual capacity industrial chocolate factory, its second in Europe.
“The facility is installed with state-of-the-art production machinery, and is specially designed with production lines to produce dark and milk chocolates with high safety and quality standards,” it said in a statement.
Guan Chong managing director and chief executive officer Brandon Tay Hoe Lian said the UK is one of the largest chocolate-consuming countries in Europe, with an average consumption of 8.1kg per capita.
“By positioning ourselves in the UK, we hope to be a formidable chocolate manufacturer, thereby capitalising on the strong demand for chocolate,” he said.
Tay said that with the current machinery installation, the facility still had additional space to increase its capacity.
“For now, we will focus on fine-tuning the facility, and evaluate our prospects for future growth,” he said.
Guan Chong said the plant would produce various types of industrial chocolates, such as chips, chunks, buttons, curls, shavings and more.
It said future expansion plans for the UK industrial chocolate facility would include value-added capabilities in cocoa liquor melting, cocoa butter melting, and cocoa cake grinding.
Guan Chong added that its German subsidiary, Schokinag-Schokolade-Industrie GmbH, had an annual industrial chocolate production capacity of 100,000 tonnes annually, bringing the group’s total production capacity to 116,000 tonnes annually.
Source: Bernama
