Responding to growing demand in Thailand and export to surrounding areas
Tokyo, Japan (October 5, 2023) ― KEWPIE (THAILAND) CO., LTD. (“Kewpie Thailand”), a group company of Kewpie Corporation (“Kewpie”), is going to build a new building for mayonnaise production at the plant to double the production capacity by investing approximately 705 million Thai baht (approximately 2.9 billion yen*1). This will help Kewpie Thailand strengthen the supply system to meet the domestic and rapidly growing export demand in Thailand and accelerate its business expansion. The operation in the new building is scheduled to start in January 2025.
In 1987, Kewpie established its first local subsidiary in Southeast Asia in Thailand as a joint venture with a local company. In FY2009, Kewpie Thailand*2 was consolidated by Kewpie, manufacturing and selling a wide range of products including condiments, processed vegetables, and processed eggs. In recent years, export of KEWPIE brand mayonnaise products from Thailand to the Oceania region has been growing, and sales in FY2022 was about three times higher than FY2019. Domestic sales have been recovered due to an increase of inbound tourism demand. Kewpie aims to strengthen the supply system by this investment to meet the expected expansion of demand in Thailand and surrounding countries with using Kewpie Thailand as a production hub.
The production line in the new building is designed to meet diverse customers needs such as gluten-free and plant-based products. In addition, the building will have solar panels to raise the percentage of renewable energy in the entire plant from about 25% (as of FY2022) to about 35% (as of FY2025). The existing building in the plant has installed solar panels since 2018 to reduce CO2 emissions. Kewpie Thailand is also working on a unique initiative to realize a circular economy by using palm shells, a biomass fuel, for boilers, and upcycling the resultant ash into bricks, which are then used as building materials for residential buildings in the surrounding areas through the government.
Kewpie will continue to contribute to the food culture and health of the world through its business activities and exports to surrounding areas at its global bases.
*1 Calculated using the exchange rate as of the end of September 2023.
*2 In April 1994, Kewpie established a joint venture company (predecessor of Kewpie Thailand) with Saha Pathana Inter-Holding Public Company Limited, a partner company in Thailand.
