Haitai Confectionery & Foods opens new Asan plant, plans to go green

Industry

Published: 13 Jul. 2022, 14:46 Updated: 13 Jul. 2022, 19:33

Haitai Confectionery & Foods opens new Asan plant, plans to go green

From left: Shin Jung-hoon, CEO of Haitai Confectionery & Foods, Yoon Young-dal, CEO of Crown-Haitai, and Yoon Seok-bin, CEO of Crown Haitai Holdings, pose for a photo while celebrating the opening of the Asan plant on Tuesday. [HAITAI CONFECTIONERY & FOODS]

Haitai Confectionery & Foods started operations at its new snack-making plant with goals to make its production process more green.

The company announced Wednesday it finished construction of its plant in Asan, South Chungcheong, and started production on Tuesday. Haitai Confectionery & Foods invested 45 billion won ($34.5 million) to build the plant, which is 14,000 square meters (150,700 square feet).

It has been 29 years since the company last built a snack factory. The last one is in Cheonan, South Chungcheong, and was built in 1993.

The Asan plant will make its snacks such as Ace crackers, French Pies and Homerun Balls, a small chocolate-filled puff pastry. The company says the plant will make 220 billion won worth of snacks per year.

Haitai Confectionery & Foods has been making snacks in its three other factories — in Cheonan, Gwangju and Daegu — and said having one closer to the greater Seoul area, which includes Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi, will allow for faster and more efficient product deliveries. Asan borders Gyeonggi cities, such as Pyeongtaek, to the north.

The company plans to participate in green initiatives with the new plant.

Solar panels that are 9,256 square meters in size are installed on the roofs, which will generate 200 million won worth of electricity a year.

The plant has a production line that makes recycled plastic products. Its Homerun Ball puffs are held in plastic trays inside the outer plastic packaging, and the trays will be made of recycled plastic starting October.

Civic groups such as the Korean Federation of Environmental Movements and Seoul YMCA requested various snack makers — Haitai Confectionery & Foods, Orion and Lotte Confectionery — to remove plastic trays from their packaging and protested in front of each of their headquarter buildings in April. According to the civic groups, Haitai Confectionery & Foods said it can’t entirely remove the plastic trays, but it will change them to recycled materials.

"With the Asan plant, we will be able to create a stable supply system for our popular products and enhance the effectiveness of our logistics, increasing our competitiveness in the market," said a spokesperson for Haitai Confectionery & Foods.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]