Unilever Expands Personal Care Production in Indonesia

As reported by Euromonitor International earlier in 2011, “Companies have strengthened their emerging market expansion strategies in “frontier markets” such as South Africa, Egypt or Indonesia. They are strengthening their offering to the local consumer by localizing their R&D to create products more suited to regional preferences.”

Following this trend, Unilever has announced expansion plans for its personal care production facilities in Indonesia, helping drive sustainable growth for the company in the fast-growing developing and emerging markets.

The company has invested about €90 million to build a new, state-of-the-art personal care factory, as well as to expand its existing ice cream and personal care factories to increase Unilever’s capacity for growth and service increasing demand for beauty products and ice cream in Indonesia and in other parts of Asia and Africa.

Pier Luigi Sigismondi, Unilever’s chief supply chain officer said, “Unilever, as the emerging markets consumer goods company, has set itself an ambitious goal—to double the size of our business whilst reducing our environmental impact. These new facilities will help us to continue to grow in Indonesia, an important market in which we have strong category positions across our portfolio, as we do across Southeast Asia. These markets contribute significantly to the 54% that Unilever currently generates from emerging markets, a figure we expect to rise substantially over the next 10 years. We are excited by the enormous possibilities these markets offer and more investments will undoubtedly follow.”

The new facilities were officially unveiled at an opening ceremony by Bapak Hatta Rajasa, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for economic affairs, in the company of several distinguished guests and the Unilever board.

This investment is part of a €550 million, three-year investment program in Indonesia to enable Unilever to leverage its leading position in developing and emerging markets by enabling sustainable and profitable growth.

Maurits Lalisang, chairman Unilever Indonesia added, “With almost 80 years of Unilever history in Indonesia, we have demonstrated long-term commitment to its growth and prosperity so far. Our continuing and significant investment in Indonesia shows that we are equally committed to Indonesia’s future growth, economic and environmental development.”

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