Speech by Minister S Iswaran at the Opening Ceremony of PepsiCo’s First Concentrate Manufacturing Plant in ASEAN

​SPEECH BY MR S ISWARAN, MINISTER FOR TRADE AND INDUSTRY (INDUSTRY) AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF PEPSICO’S FIRST CONCENTRATE MANUFACTURING PLANT IN ASEAN ON 27 APRIL 2017, 2.20PM

Mr. Brian Newman, Executive Vice President of Global Operation, PepsiCo Inc.

Ms. Grace Puma, Senior Vice President and Chief Supply Officer, PepsiCo Inc.

Mr. Adel Garas, Asia Pacific President, PepsiCo Inc.

Ms. Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath, Charge d’Affaires, ad interim, US Embassy of Singapore

Distinguished guests

Ladies and Gentleman

Good Afternoon

Introduction

1.            I am pleased to join you at the opening of PepsiCo’s new concentrate manufacturing plant.

2.            PepsiCo first established a local sales office in Singapore in 1984.  Since then, the company has continued to expand its footprint to support its growing business in the region. Today, PepsiCo employs over 120 staff in Singapore across a range of activities, including manufacturing, sales and marketing, distributorship management and shared services. The opening of this new plant marks another significant milestone in our partnership with PepsiCo.

Singapore is well positioned to capture the opportunities from the growing Food Manufacturing industry in Asia Pacific

3.            Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing markets for the Food Manufacturing industry. For instance, the region accounted for 31 percent of global sales for processed food and beverage in 2016, compared to 18 percent in 2014.

4.            Singapore is well positioned to capture the opportunities from this growth. In November last year, we launched the Food Manufacturing Industry Transformation Map (ITM) to develop Singapore into Asia’s leading food and nutrition hub.  The ITM aims to achieve a productivity growth of 4.5 percent per annum and create 2,000 new Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians (PMET) jobs by 2020.

The Government will continue to partner the industry to anchor high value-added manufacturing, adopt advanced manufacturing technologies and equip our people with the requisite skillsets.

5.            We will continue to partner leading companies to anchor high value-added manufacturing, adopt advanced manufacturing technologies and equip our people with the requisite skillsets. Our partnership with PepsiCo is a good example of how we are doing this.

Anchor high value-added manufacturing

6.            Anchoring high value-added manufacturing activities will help to differentiate our Food Manufacturing industry.  It also plays to Singapore’s strengths as a trusted location with a strong intellectual property protection regime and focus on quality. For instance, this new plant will undertake concentrate manufacturing, which involves important proprietary knowledge and is one of the most valuable aspects of the manufacturing value chain. As concentrates are used to manufacture a wide range of finished products, concentrate manufacturing also requires a high level of safety and assurance to ensure the quality of the finished product. 

Adopt advanced manufacturing

7.            Through the use of robotics, this new plant will achieve over 70 percent improvement in labour productivity for its liquid handling processes, compared to conventional systems. The use of technologies will also enable the plant to be more energy efficient, requiring only 60 per cent of the energy required for conventional processes to achieve similar levels of output.  

8.            The plant will also adopt technologies to support a range of production lines that can be easily modified. Such flexibility on the shop floor will enable PepsiCo to more quickly roll out novel and seasonal product lines that better suit the evolving preferences of consumers.  I understand that this plant will serve as PepsiCo’s Centre of Excellence for “flexible manufacturing”, and support the adoption of similar technologies in other sites.

9.            We encourage more companies to adopt advanced manufacturing technologies to drive productivity and strengthen the competitiveness of their operations in Singapore. Companies can take advantage of Government schemes, such as the Automation Support Package, to deploy automation and robotics solutions in their manufacturing processes.

Equip our people with the requisite skillsets

10.         We will also continue to partner the industry to create new job opportunities for our people, and equip them with the relevant skillsets.

11.         For example, this new plant will create 90 new skilled jobs, including scientists, engineers, supply chain specialists, and flavour sensory technicians.  PepsiCo is also training our workforce so they are better prepared for these jobs which require specialised skillsets.  

12.         Ms. Sally Hooh is one of the employees who has benefited from PepsiCo’s training efforts.  Sally joined the company last year as a Quality Control Senior Technician.  She received technical training on PepsiCo’s instrumentation and test methods, as well as laboratory management and chemical management skills. More recently, Sally completed specialised company training in Gas Chromatography, and will apply these skills to ensure the quality of PepsiCo’s products in this new plant.  We hope that Sally’s story, and that of others like her, will inspire more Singaporeans to deepen their skills and take up careers in the Food Manufacturing industry.

Conclusion

13.         In closing, I once again congratulate PepsiCo on the opening of this new concentrate manufacturing plant. This plant is a good example of how we can partner the Food Manufacturing industry to undertake high value-added manufacturing, adopt advanced manufacturing technologies, as well as equip our workforce with the relevant skillsets.

14.         We look forward to deepening our partnership with PepsiCo, and wish the team every success. Thank you.​​