A mother is purchasing packets of instant noodles at a supermarket with her son. Photo: IC

A bowl of instant noodles served Photo: IC

In a busy factory in the city of Shaoguan, South China's Guangdong Province, very few workers are doing a routine checkup of the facilities, which can produce nearly 20 million packs of instant noodles every month.

The 30,000 square meters factory is owned by Sinar Mas Group, one of the largest conglomerates in Indonesia. Equipped with advanced production lines, mixing flour, baking and toasting, cutting and packaging can be completed by the machine with several times higher production efficiency rate than that of manual work.

The new plant, the stage I of a Shaoguan-based project of Sinar Mas, started operation in April. Those instant noodles are mainly sold in China.

"The stage II will soon start building, which will produce more healthy food for Chinese customers," said the factory's manager Cheng Yinping.

With a total investment of 170 million yuan ($ 24 million dollars), the factory is expected to produce an annual output of over 900 million packs of instant noodles after its completion, according to Cheng.

High hopes are pinned on the Shaoguan plant, as the Sinar Mas China Food Division considers it an important step in its transformation and upgrading in China.

"We expect to build this factory into our headquarter in south China, as well as the most important flagship factory in China," said Patrick Huang, corporate affairs vice president of Sinar Mas China Food Division, adding that the Shaoguan plant will be equipped with the best facilities and given heavy investment.

Established in 1938, Sinar Mas was founded by a Chinese-Indonesian tycoon and entered the Chinese market after acquiring a food company in Guangdong in 1994. Its business now ranges from food production to financial services, with 380,000 employees worldwide.

Aside from Guangdong, the company's footprint in China has expanded, with plants located in the provinces of Liaoning, Shaanxi, Hubei, Shandong, and Jiangsu.

China has always been playing a crucial role in fuelling Sinar Mas's business, Huang said.

"In the past, we've benefited from China's opening-up and its demographic dividend. Our business of fast-moving consumer goods has seen rapid development," Huang added. "Since China's economy continues to thrive, we started to build plants in China and broaden the market. In the new era, we expect more opportunities in this country as China is opening wider to the world."

Noticing the booming e-payment and e-commerce, the company has established cooperation with China's leading e-commerce giants like Alibaba and JD.com, to seek new retail channels and make a smarter marketing plan.

The company will also join the forthcoming online shopping spree which falls on Nov 11 to boost consumption, according to Cheng.

"As the relationship between Indonesia and China gets closer, I believe the economic relations between the two countries will reach a higher level and companies from both sides will achieve win-win outcomes," Huang said.

Huang also looks forward to introducing more Indonesian products to China through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and selling its products produced in China to more countries and regions along the BRI.


Newspaper headline: Indonesian company’s success story in China