Multivac constructs multi-purpose Japanese packaging and bakery site as local demand overflows

26 Aug 2021 --- Multivac is investing €20 million (US$22 million) into a new operations building for the packaging and bakery sectors, located in Tsukuba, Japan. This development comes as the company’s growth in the local market left its other locations over capacitated. 

The new site will cover 14,400 square meters and combine Mutlivac’s different business units into one location. Construction began in May and is expected to conclude next summer.

“Japan is a significant market for Multivac. The new building will expand the local production capacity and also optimize our logistics systems,” says Guido Spix, group president of Multivac.

Up to now, the production of dyes has been carried out in the nearby city of Toda, while the assembly has been concentrated in Abiko.

However, both sites have reached their capacity limits despite continuous improvement in manufacturing processes, explains Spix. “In future, we will produce at one location, which will also enable us to increase our productivity.”

Bakery and meat packaging will be expanded in the new facility.New facilities
The multi-purpose building will include the following facilities: a floor of Manufacturing and Assembly departments and the Training & Application Center for Processing & Packaging, together with an Application Center for Bakery Technology.

The upper floor will accommodate a small-parts warehouse and a canteen and the offices and meeting/training rooms, which are needed to meet the growing demand.

Further operating areas could follow in due course. In order to be well equipped for the future, Multivac has made planning provisions with the area of land for a possible building expansion.

Japanese packaging growth
Kenichiro Onuma, managing director of Multivac Japan, explains the site is intended to function for general development in Japan and increased output.

“The new building will not only create additional capacity, but it will also enable us to provide new training facilities for the staff of our Japanese service network, as well as offering customers advice on all aspects of system integration,” he details.

“It will also bring our solutions closer to them in our showrooms – including those from the Fritsch and TVI business units, which will play an important role for us in the future on the Japanese market.”

Fritsch has existed as the company’s manufacturer of equipment for both large bakeries and smaller producers of bakery products since 2019. TVI is Mutlivac’s meat portioning specialist, in operation since 2017.

Mutlivac’s Asian expansion
Multivac is not only expanding in Japan. The group now has twelve subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific region, employing a total of more than 300 staff.

In 2019, the company signed an investment agreement to establish a new production company in Taicang, China.

In July 2020, it founded a subsidiary in Vietnam – the Multivac Company, a new sales and service facility in Ho Chi Minh City, which enables Multivac to react to the requirements of its Vietnamese customers with even greater speed and focus.

Edited

By Louis Gore-Langton

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