Barry Callebaut and Morinaga to extend partnership in Japan

Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality cocoa and chocolate products, and Morinaga, one of Japan’s largest confectionery companies, today signed an agreement to extend their long-term strategic partnership signed early 2008. Both parties agreed on a new, 10-year supply agreement for up to 16,000 tonnes of chocolate and compound products a year. For this, Morinaga and Barry Callebaut will also intensify their cooperation in the field of Research & Development (R&D) and jointly develop new products.

As part of the agreement, Barry Callebaut’s current factory in Amagasaki near Osaka, will stop operation in mid-2013. The company will relocate the operation and increase the production capacity in a newly built chocolate and compound factory in Takasaki, around 100 km north of Tokyo, where Morinaga intends to expand its operation. Besides the production for Morinaga, Barry Callebaut will gradually increase sales volume for other customers in the Japanese market. The company will also further strengthen its sales organization in Japan in order to open up previously untapped market potential.

“The extension of the current strategic partnership with Morinaga is a great honor for us”, said Juergen Steinemann, CEO of Barry Callebaut. “From the new location we can even better serve both Morinaga’s chocolate needs and increase our sales volume for third-party customers as we are getting closer to them. This will further strengthen our position in one of Asia’s most important chocolate market.”

Masayuki Yada, President of Morinaga said, “We feel privileged to extend the current long-term agreement with Barry Callebaut. By outsourcing the chocolate production to Barry Callebaut, we can focus our resources on R&D and marketing of consumer-chocolate, one of our core businesses for further expansion. We are confident that our strategic partnership will create a win-win situation.”

In January 2008, Barry Callebaut and Morinaga closed a 10-year supply agreement for 9,000 tonnes a year. As part of the agreement, Barry Callebaut operated a chocolate production facility in Amagasaki. In November 2010, Morinaga announced to focus part of its operations on Takasaki. In order to be close to its main customer, Barry Callebaut decided to follow Morinaga’s relocation with its production facilities.

During the next 12 months, Barry Callebaut will invest a total of CHF 18.5 million (EUR 15.4 million / USD 19.4 million). From the new location, Barry Callebaut will serve both third party industrial and Gourmet customers in the highly attractive Japanese chocolate market.

In its Region Asia-Pacific, Barry Callebaut owns and operates today 3 chocolate factories in Singapore (Singapore), Suzhou (China) and Amagasaki (Japan) as well as a combined cocoa and chocolate factory in Port Klang (Malaysia), where the Regional Head Office is located. As part of a joint venture with P.T. Comextra Majora, a new cocoa processing facility is currently being built in Makassar, Sulawesi (Indonesia); operations will start in early 2013. The company also has sales offices in Shanghai (China) and in Mumbai (India). Three of the company’s Chocolate Academies are located in Region Asia-Pacific: Mumbai (India), Port Klang (Malaysia) and Suzhou (China).