Bel Group Opens Production Plant in Vietnam
Bel Group has inaugurated a plant to make The Laughing Cow® cheese brand in Binh Duong province in Vietnam. The new production site is aimed at supplying the Vietnamese market and supporting the group’s growth in south-east Asia by placing production of The Laughing Cow® closer to the brand’s consumers.
Present in Vietnam for over 65 years, the Bel Group leads the country’s cheese market, with The Laughing Cow®, known as Con Bò Cười in Vietnamese, holding an extraordinary 85% market share. The group’s long history in the country and the fondness of Vietnamese families for The Laughing Cow® brand has enabled Bel to anchor its presence in Vietnam, with the establishment of a sales subsidiary in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008, followed by a first test-production site in 2010.
Building on the success of the initial local production test, Bel selected Vietnam to host its own production site, which will supply the local market and support the acceleration of the group’s development strategy in Southeast Asia.
Eleven months of work were required to build the production site. A showcase of Bel’s technological knowhow in processed cheese, the plant integrates all of Bel’s manufacturing expertise to deliver the highest quality products, food safety and environmental performance.
Hubert Mayet, General Manager of Manufacturing and Technical Operations, Research and Innovation at Bel, says: “This site was built according to our sustainable plant model, which blends productivity with preserving resources. For example, the roof reflects sunlight and a particularly effective insulation system was installed to reduce energy consumption as much as possible. Designing our plants based on these fundamentals allows us to continue innovating and hitting new operating efficiency and environmental preservation targets.”
The plant’s teams produce over three million single-serving portions of The Laughing Cow® each week for the entire Vietnamese market, as well as for the Cambodian, Philippine, Singaporean and Thai markets. Situated on 20,000 square meters of land, the plant itself spans 10,000 square meters, enabling it to double its current production capacity to meet increased demand in the years ahead. The plant employs 120 people.
