Procter & Gamble will invest up to US$100 million to build its first plant in Indonesia in Karawang, West Java, P&G Home Product Indonesia External Relations Manager, Junita Kartikasari said.
The fast moving consumer goods producing plant (PMCG) will be completed with modern facilities to produce baby diapers Pampers, she said.
She said it would be the first plant in Indonesia that will recieve a “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)” certificate.
LEED is a system of international certification issued by the US Environment-Friendly Construction Council.
The certificate is given to buildings that meet environmental criteria. P&G has earlier announced that all of its new facilities would be LEED-certified.
PGHP president director Mohamed Ismail at the laying of a corner stone of the plant said Indonesia is an important market for baby treatment industry.
The ceremony was also attended by industry minister MS Hidayat who expressed hope on the occasion that the new plant would spur national FMCG industrial growth.
He said the government fully supported the construction of the plant which shows that business opportunity in Indonesia is wide open.
Mohamed said six of 11 countries with the biggest baby population are in Asia. Indonesia is one of them with 17 million babies aged under 48 months.
“A lot of babies I think would need correct treatment especially when their parents have to adapt to a modern life style. At the time practical, healthy and trusted will be badly needed,” he said.
The plant will take around two years to construct before it could fully operate.
In the next five years P&G expects demand for baby diapers in the country would reach around eight millions. The plant is expected to create around 400 jobs.
P&G hopes its products would reach hospitals and midwives. Its products at present are consumed by around 4.4 billion people in the world such as Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Mach3, Bounty, Dawn, Fairy, Gain, Pringels, Charmin, Downy, Iams, Crest, Oral-B, Duracell, Olay, Head&Shpulders, Wella, Gillette, Braun, Fusion, Ace, Febreze and Ambi Pur.
P&G is operating in 80 countries and its producs could be found in more than 180 countries.
