In January 2023, Barry Callebaut officially opened our Asia Pacific Business Excellence Centre (APAC BEC) in Petaling Jaya, which will function as a centre of excellence, providing support across the company’s financial and accounting services, information management and technology, customer service, and other corporate and shared service functions.

The facility is home to more than 100 employees and is the company’s third site in Malaysia. They also operate a chocolate and cocoa factory in Port Klang and another cocoa factory in Pasir Gudang, Johor, both of which also house a research & development laboratory.

One of the main reasons why Callebaut says it set up this new Centre is to provide a better customer service experience through service optimisation and automation. As they continue to grow in the Region, they say this growth needs to be supported by a strong hub that will focus on improving their processes and efficiencies.

Callebaut commented: “Prior to setting up APAC BEC, our strong customer service, information management and finance teams were located at our Port Klang factory site, providing shared resources to the region. With this new Center, we are highly confident that we can focus on and deliver the highest level of service while attracting the best talent.

“When deciding on the location for this Center, Malaysia topped the chart. Malaysia is a country renowned as a financial and shared services hub, plus it has an extremely strong talent pool. Our existing presence in the country and all these other factors led us to believe that we could build a business excellence center at pace and scale and deliver an improved customer experience across the Region.”

Barry Callebaut has operated in Asia Pacific since 1997. The new APAC BEC in Malaysia underlines their long-term commitment to the Region. Over the last few decades, Callebaut says it has made significant investments in Malaysia and built up their presence in the country, from manufacturing to research and development of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products.

“We are proud to provide end-to-end capabilities in the region, encompassing our cocoa sourcing and logistics centre, our two cocoa and chocolate application labs, our cocoa R&D center, and our cocoa and chocolate factories,” Callebaut stated.

Editorial contact:
Editor: Kiran Grewal kgrewal@kennedys.co.uk