New Guangdong factory to help boost Kraft Heinz competitiveness: Senior executive

Operation of a new factory in South China's Guangdong province will help boost Kraft Heinz's competitiveness in the high-end soy sauce market and further expand its business in China, according to a senior company executive.

"We are aiming to become a leading soy sauce provider in the Chinese market by building an iconic brand and investing in advanced facilities in our factories," said Rodrigo Wickbold, president of Kraft Heinz Asia and China.

Kraft Heinz, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, opened its new factory on Friday in Yangjiang, a coastal city in western Guangdong, with an investment of about 700 million yuan ($100 million).

The Yangjiang facility, one of the largest Kraft Heinz investment projects in recent years, is estimated to produce 200,000 tons of soy sauce each year, according to the company.

"China is an important strategic market for Kraft Heinz, as local consumers have developed increased demand for high-end soy sauce products," said Wickbold.

China's high-end soy sauce market grew 9.99 percent year-on-year to about 20.2 billion yuan in 2018, according to industrial research provider Forward - the Economist.

According to the company, the Yangjiang soy sauce production base will focus on producing a soy sauce product series called Weijixian under its Master brand and will expand to more sauces and condiments in the future.

Based on Kraft Heinz's global resources and management experience, the factory is equipped with a series of highly automated production lines, including a central production control system and automated filling machines.

The systems allow complete automatic control from raw material management and soy sauce brewing production to finished product testing, realizing the stable, efficient and safe production of each soy sauce bottle.