Chocolate factory arrives in Japan
Barry Callebaut, manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, has announced that it has completed the move of its Japan chocolate factory from Amagasaki to Takasaki, as announced in June 2012.
The new and larger facility, which was officially inaugurated this month, offers an initial annual production capacity of 22,000 tonnes of chocolate and compound products. The total amount invested is £13m (€15.4m).
Situated in the Gunma Prefecture, the new factory in Takasaki is located about 100km north of Tokyo. The highly automated site encompasses about 17,000m2. The facility is close to existing and potential new customers and will serve as a local base to serve both industrial food manufacturers as well as gourmet customers in the highly attractive and well-developed Japanese chocolate market.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut, says: “An important building block of our business in Japan is our partnership with the country’s leading food manufacturers and the proximity to our local customers here. These close relationships combine local knowledge and entrepreneurship with our global research and development capabilities and manufacturing expertise. Moving our Japanese factory to Takasaki is a strategic move which brings us closer to our customers and reinforces our priorities to partnering for innovation and mutual success.”
“Our new factory in Japan underlines our commitment to our customers in Japan by continuing to invest in the development of our production capabilities and introducing new products in the local chocolate market. We are truly proud to have created one of the world’s most modern chocolate factories in Japan,” adds Fumitaka Nakano, Barry Callebaut’s managing director for Japan.
