Vinda group begins construction of ASEAN headquarters in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR - Top Chinese tissue maker Vinda International Holdings Ltd (Vinda International) has begun construction of its unit Vinda Group Southeast Asia (Vinda SEA) regional headquarters in Klang district of Malaysia's Selangor state on Tuesday.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony, Vinda SEA president Su Ting Nee said Malaysia was chosen after several countries were considered, with good infrastructure, a culturally diverse workforce and ease of logistics being the deciding factors.

"Malaysia offers stability, first class infrastructure and multilingual and multicultural talents that are crucial for business sustainability. Coupled with our strong presence in Malaysia, it was an obvious decision for Vinda to set up our regional hub and innovation center here to support our continuous growth expansion in Southeast Asia," she said.

Su explained the plant represented a high value investment for Malaysia as it would house the Vinda Innovation Center, the only one outside of China and incorporated a range of green technologies in its design such as solar panels, rain water harvesting and waste management including water treatment and composting of organic waste.

"The investment of more than half a billion ringgit over the next five years in multiple projects to set up the Vinda regional hub represents our commitment to Malaysia and to help the state of Selangor.

"The new 27-acre site in Bandar Bukit Raja will comprise an automated finished goods warehouse, a double storey plant with raw material warehouse and a six storey administration block that also houses the innovation center," she said.

Su added that the warehouse would include an automated storage and retrieval system, automatic raw material supply to production lines, pre-selection of finished goods to be loaded and a fully automated first in, first out system.

The plant will employ about 1,300 staff, almost all of whom are Malaysians, and the compound will be built in two phases with the warehouse section scheduled for completion by 2021 and the second phase, including the manufacturing and administrative facilities scheduled to be completed for 2023.

The regional hub will develop, manufacture and market four different product categories: baby care, incontinence care, feminine care and tissue products and serve the ASEAN market and support sales to more than 25 countries.