In 2012, Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, Taiwan’s leading enterprise of food industry, injected an investment worth NT$ 10 billion in building the Hukou plant in Hsinchu County. Following the lead of Magistrate Chiu Ching-Chun, the Hsinchu County government completed the issuing of construction licenses for the first-phase and second-phase construction within 72 hours. The first-phase construction is projected to announce its completion at the end of March, 2014, while the administrative services center, food plant and bakery plant of the second-phase construction saw its ground-breaking ceremony in the morning of Feb. 25, 2014. At the ceremony, Chairman and President of Uni-President Lo Chih-Hsien, Director-general of Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs Wu Ming-Ji and Magistrate Chiu carried shovels to break the ground. The new plant is to plunge into the mass production before the end of 2015, and an estimated production value worth NT$ 10 billion and over 1,000 job opportunities are expected to be created.
The first-phase and second-phase construction of Hukou plant can’t possibly begin as scheduled without the great helps of Magistrate Chiu and the County government to deal with the construction matters such as land, water, electricity and gas pipe and so forth, Chairman Lo stated. The second-phase construction, including bakery plant and food plant, is to come to an end by 2015, and 33,000 loafs of bread, 400,000 bags of noodles and 300,000 cup noodles will be produced by then. A total of over NT$ 10 billion output value is expected to yield down the road.
The County government has seen great achievements in investment promotion by setting up the one-stop window of investment promotion, turning Hsinchu County into the city with No.1 economic energy, lowest unemployment rate and highest employment rate, Magistrate Chiu said. Considering the prospects of Hsinchu County, Uni-President was attracted to base its plant on this land, leading to over 1,000 local job opportunities. In addition, Magistrate Chiu advised that Uni-President produce and sell the County’s local agricultural products locally to make better products with higher quality.
Director Wu expressed his recognition of the County government’s collaboration to help Uni-President build the plants; meanwhile, Wu acknowledged that Uni-President’s shift in development direction is on the right track and in accordance with the “Three Industries & Four Reforms” program─Servitization of Manufacturing, Internationalization of Service Sector, Technology Enabling of Service Sector, and Characterization of Traditional Industries, which will lead Taiwan’s industries to reach another new peak.
Uni-President spent NT$ 3 billion buying 17.4 hectares of land in Hukou of Hsinchu County on October, 2011, and planned to build a comprehensive production base as the supply center of ice desserts, bread and instant noodles for the northern Taiwan. To achieve the goal, a projected total of NT$ 15 billion will be invested, making Hukou plant Uni-President’s largest domestic production base with its most investment amount ever injected in Taiwan.
The first district of Uni-President’s Hukou general plant is ice plant and electrical substation, and the second district is administrative service center, Chairman Lo said. Lo added that the third district is bakery plant, and the fourth district is food plant. In terms of food safety, the general plant meets the strict requirements of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), and the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), a traceability real-time management system, was introduced and employed to work on the management of food safety based on the sources of raw food materials. As for the environmental security, the general plant uses the elements of green architecture, ecological ponds, green planting, Rainwater Harvesting System, green building materials, energy-efficient air-conditioning VRV (Variable Refrigerant Volume), energy-efficient boilers, energy-efficient heat pumps, and energy-saving lights LED, etc. What’s more, waste water and air pollution treatment equipment also meets food plant’s environmental emission standards, showing Uni-President’s determination to shoulder the corporate social responsibility.
Aside from the constant investments in Taiwan’s food industry, Uni-President is to invest NT$ 1 billion in establishing a national food safety inspection building in its head office of Tainan, remarked Chairman Lo. It is desired that the check on food safety can catch up with the increase in output, and only then the consumers can eat at ease.
Source: Uni-President Enterprises Corporation
Writer and Editor: Hui-Ru Fang