Japanese confectioner Ezaki Glico Co. has opened in Indonesia what it calls its largest-ever factory for its mainstay "Pocky" chocolate snack, aiming to supply the growing Southeast Asian market as well as North America.
Indonesia will be Glico's "new growth engine" as it is the most populous country in Southeast Asia and the fourth in the world with a rising middle-class population, Asia Pacific Chief Operating Officer Hideaki Nagahisa said Thursday as the company invited media to tour the plant that began production in November.
"With advanced technology at Glico Manufacturing Indonesia, now our largest factory, along with our Thailand factory, we are sure we could meet the demand today and in the future, be it in the Indonesian market, Southeast Asia and North America," the official also said.
The Pocky plant in the West Java Province, near Jakarta, has a total floor space of about 57,000 square meters, surpassing Glico's previous largest factory located in Japan's western city of Kobe.
The Indonesian factory has recently started supplying the domestic market and is also planning to start exporting products to North America later this year.
Glico Group last year marked its 100th anniversary since its founding, with its business activities ranging from confectionery, dairy products to processed foods.
According to the company's website, Pocky was rolled out in Japan in 1966 as "the world's first chocolate coated biscuit sticks," with an "innovative" idea of leaving one end of the stick uncovered so that no chocolate gets on the fingers.
