Mead Johnson spends big on Chon Buri R&D centre
HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn paints a flower pattern for use as a label for canned-milk products yesterday during her visit to Mead Johnson’s newly opened research and development centre in Thailand.
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Infant-nutrition supplier Mead Johnson Nutritionals has spent more than Bt300 million in Thailand on its second-largest research and development centre and other facilities.
The R&D centre, in Chon Buri's Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate, is Mead Johnson's second largest, following one in the United States. Two others are located in the Netherlands and Mexico. The new centre and facilities cover 4,000 square metres. Out of a total investment of Bt300 million, about Bt100 million was spent on the new R&D centre's construction and the rest on facilities to support an expansion of its production capacity in the future. General manager Matthew Chapple said yesterday after the centre's opening, presided over by HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, that the company chose Thailand because of the skilled personnel and the establishment of its regional management office. Moreover, Thailand has an advantage in terms of logistics, because it is in the middle of Southeast Asia, which is one of the US-based company's biggest markets. He said Thailand was the production base for exports to Malaysia, Vietnam and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the R&D centre will conduct all product research for Asia. "The new centre will allow us to respond to the demands of Asian children immediately, because we won't have to wait for research from our centre in America," said regional R&D director Tunyawat Kasemsuwan. The centre consists of four units: a nutrient analysis laboratory, regional sensory centre, packaging centre and pilot plant for producing products for R&D. He said there were 70 researchers at present: 40 Thais and 30 from different countries. Each of the four main R&D centres also works in cooperation with other R&D sub-branches in 60 countries. Chapple said the birth rate in Thailand was almost flat but that more parents were keen to give the best products to their children. Hence, he said the company would focus on producing more premium products for the infant-nutrition market, which he said grew by 5-10 per cent annually. He said the company had no plans to increase product prices at the moment, although it had to spend more on R&D, plus the price of milk was increasing. "It's quite difficult to lift prices, because of the controls of the Department of Internal Trade," he added. Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul The Nation
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