Belgian sweets maker opens research centre
Belgian-owned Puratos Grand-Place Vietnam, which specialises in cakes, pastries, chocolate, and cocoa, yesterday opened an innovation and distribution centre in Binh Duong Province at a cost of US$2.5 million.
Spread over 6,000sq.m at the Vietnam-Singapore Park 1, the centre will research into chocolate and bakery and patisserie products and act as a logistics centre for Indochina, Gricha Safarian, the company's managing director, said.
It is also a "fantastic state of the art tool" for training customers in using a wide range of products that the company manufactures in Vietnam, he claimed.
PGPV currently buys around 1,000 tonnes of cocoa beans a year in Vietnam, or 30% of the country's total output.