Diana Pet Food is opening a state-of-the-art factory in Asia Pacific, located in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, China. It is the first Diana Pet Food site in Asia Pacific to feature a spray dryer and a measurement centre for petfood palatability, making it a unique site on the continent for the company.
Diana Pet Food has opened its modern petfood facilities in a ceremony on 6 July 2021 in Chuzhou. The forward-looking Chinese entrepreneurial spirit belongs to the reasons that have made the petfood segment grow so dynamically and fast. Diana Pet Food leads the market in this segment and intends to grow further with its state-of-the-art facilities that will advance the pet food capabilities with additional capacities and knowhow.
“This site marks a turning point for Diana Pet Food in APAC: Our investment in China indicates the beginning in our journey to structure and strengthen our presence in the area to meet the growing demand of this highly dynamic market,” says Bertrand de Launay, Diana Pet Food President.
The factory in Chuzhou will host a spray dryer on its site as the first Diana Pet Food factory in Asia Pacific (APAC). Diana Pet Food will therefore be able to offer an enlarged portfolio of powder products and address the growing needs of the petfood market in APAC. It will also allow the company to act more independent in the production of those products by managing the supply locally, and to exert optimal control of products’ quality and food safety. The site will produce its palatability enhancers sold under the brand SPF and health and nutrition solutions sold under the brand Vivae. The land surface of the new facility exceeds the old facility twelve times, which was also located in Chuzhou. The surface of the new building itself covers an area 20 times bigger than the previous site.
The closer, the better
The fortified local set-up will enable the company to serve its customers in the region agile, targeted and according to their needs. This approach comes with a long tradition as addressing regional markets with local production sites forms a long-standing strategy at Diana Pet Food. The unique local technical and sales network developed by Diana Pet Food ensures real proximity and customer service for manufacturers.
Diana Pet Food regional teams understand the local petfood market needs and challenges in-depth. They are designing solutions perfectly adapted to meet the local expectations. Close to raw materials, Diana Pet Food also guarantees an efficient supply chain and back-up solutions for manufacturers around the world.
Alain Symoens, General Manager of Diana Pet Food in APAC says: “We detach the design of our industrial footprint from random events (such as Covid-19, or any other supply chain events). As they would happen anyway during our customer relationship journey, our new plant shows and confirms the efficiency of Diana Pet Food model and our motto ‘the closer, the better’.”
The first expert measurement centre in Asia Pacific
Another feature to strengthen the local presence on the market includes an expert measurement centre called Panelis. It leads as worldwide expert in petfood palatability measurement providing its clients with studies on cats and dogs’ feeding behaviours and preferences. Panelis also delivers insights about owners’ perception of their pets’ feeding experience.
This leading expertise builds on scientific excellence and a strong sense of ethics – two of Panelis’ integral assets. The centre’s teams ensure that all studies contain reliable and objective information, based on repeatable and controlled testing methodologies. Pet-friendly and quality driven, Panelis has conceived protocols that respect product characteristics and the natural and specific feeding rhythms of cats and dogs. The pet specialists are carefully choosing and gently training the pets to become tasting experts. Since they can obtain accurate answers only from healthy, happy, and stress-free pets, Panelis has created the most pet-friendly environment for all its little furry gourmets!
Panelis provides this expertise to help market players better serve consumers. Therefore, it relies on both its expert centres in France, Brazil, USA, and now China, housing in total 980 cats and dogs including 60 different breeds worldwide, and an in-home community of more than 2000 families in France, excited to take part in the development of tomorrow’s pet food.
An eco-friendly factory
The facilities bring one more benefit. They entail high standards of environmental friendly design and processes. This goes in line with the Chinese tradition of environmentally friendly construction and the sustainability approach of Diana Pet Food. The company is embedding sustainable measures along its entire value chain.
As first, the petfood factory in Colombia has embedded eco-friendly design and operation features right from the start. The design of this new factory in Chuzhou also follows the company’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) strategy to minimise the social and environmental footprint and to prioritise sustainability. The building will exert a minimum impact on the environment, and follows the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. Examples of initiatives that meet the criteria include: the collection and use of rainwater, the optimisation of site energy consumption, the optimisation of monitoring and the improvement of health and comfort for our employees with better indoor air quality and noise control.
For more information on Diana Pet Food visit their website, HERE.
