Jelly Belly plans Thailand facility

Jelly Belly Candy Co. s new plant in Rayong, Thailand, will supply customers in 43 countries outside the United States. The company can use the extra production to meet growing international demand. The 50,000-square-foot manufacturing facility will place international production within closer reach of emerging markets in China, India and the Middle East, and in the same country where Jelly Belly buys tapioca syrup for sweetening some of its product lines. The number of countries where Jelly Belly is distributed has risen 75 percent since 2006 from 24 to 43, and overall sales have grown 25 percent in the same period, to $160 million. Eighty-five percent of the family-owned company s sales are its signature small, naturally flavored jelly beans, with the rest coming from chocolate-covered candies, gummies, jells, candy corn and other sweets.
The new plant, located on 6.4 acres in a free-trade zone at Rayong on the Gulf of Thailand coast, is designed to provide extra capacity at a lower cost to serve the growing international market, said Herman Rowland, Jelly Belly board chairman. That leaves Jelly Belly s domestic plants in Fairfield and Chicago free to supply the United States, still by far the company s largest market. The extra production capacity, with room for expansion to 200,000 square feet, is coming online as Jelly Belly has targeted $200 million in sales by 2010. The No. 1 growth market for Jelly Belly is China, followed by India, the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
But delays related to overseas contractor issues have put the opening off - probably till later this year, he said. The new plant now is expected to make test production runs in August and open later this year. "We re 98 percent complete on building facilities and equipment installation, and we are now fixing all the things that didn t get done right," said Rowland. The company won t disclose what it spent to build the Thai plant, but Sharon Duncan, vice president for international business, called it a "substantial" amount.