Chairman Shin Dong-bin Attends the Completion Ceremony in Person
Lotte is opening a new factory in India, the country with the world's largest population of 1.4 billion, and is intensifying its market penetration.
On the 9th, Lotte Wellfood announced that it held a completion ceremony for the Havmore Pune new factory in Pune, a city in western India, on the 6th. Attendees at the ceremony included Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group; Lee Young-gu, Head of Lotte Food Division; Lee Chang-yeop, CEO of Lotte Wellfood; Shin Yoo-yeol, Head of Future Growth at Lotte Holdings; Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, India; and Lee Sung-ho, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to India.
In his congratulatory speech, Chairman Shin said, “Since acquiring the historic Havmore company and starting the ice cream business in India, Lotte has achieved remarkable growth in line with India’s dazzling economic growth rate. The completion of this new factory will be an important milestone for Lotte’s global food business, and we will produce the highest quality products to make Havmore the most beloved brand in India.”
This new factory in Pune is the first production facility expansion by Lotte Wellfood since acquiring Havmore in December 2017. The factory site covers 60,000 square meters, equivalent to the size of eight soccer fields, and is six times larger than the existing Gujarat factory. The new factory incorporates advanced Korean production technologies, including Lotte Wellfood’s automation equipment, significantly enhancing production efficiency. Lotte Wellfood expects stable product production and supply during the peak ice cream season, with ice cream sales projected to grow by more than 15% compared to the previous year. Currently operating nine production lines, the Pune factory plans to expand to 16 lines by 2028.
Pune, located in western India, is a strategically optimal location for Havmore. Based on the production volume of the Pune factory, Havmore aims to strengthen its market dominance in western India while using the Pune factory as a forward base for expansion into southern India. The production volume from the existing Gujarat factory will be more intensively supplied to the core northwestern markets. Additionally, since Pune can source key ice cream raw materials from nearby locations, cost reduction and efficiency improvements are expected.
Havmore will also expand production of Lotte brand products. Currently, World Cone is produced at the Gujarat factory, and the Pune factory plans to sequentially produce Pig Bar, Jaws Bar, and Watermelon Bar within this year to supply the Indian market. To enhance the competitiveness of Lotte brands in India and global markets, production volume of Lotte brands will continue to expand.
Lotte Wellfood is actively advancing its market strategy in India by consecutively completing the new factory and launching an integrated corporation. The integrated corporation of Lotte India and Havmore, to be launched within the first half of the year, is expected to strengthen the product portfolio and integrate logistics bases to create efficiency synergies. Furthermore, the Haryana factory in India has been selected as the first overseas production base for the Pepero brand and will begin production in the second half of this year. Lotte Wellfood plans to enhance its global business while adjusting its business portfolio to increase corporate value.
Meanwhile, during this business trip, Chairman Shin held a series of meetings with top executives of global companies, including Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Group; Anand Mahindra, Chairman of Mahindra Group; and Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered Group, to discuss business issues and cooperation plans.
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