The company is expanding its facilities in Maharashtra, India in two phases with the second phase due to begin in November. It commissioned its second manufacturing facility on Aug 15 marking VDML’s first phase of expansion.
Mitesh Manek, sales and marketing manager for VDML, told FoodNavigator-Asia: “There is currently a three month wait for products due to lack of production capacity and small scale facilities. The new factory will allow demand to be fulfilled.”
He said: “At the moment we haven’t been able to keep up with demand…it will deal with the bulk production, increasing capacity and enabling higher levels of production.”
Its production facility has a current production capacity of 1140m tonnes and VDML is hoping to increase that to 3360m tonnes after the expansion program.
VDML has representations throughout Asia Pacific, with the strongest demand for synthetic food colours from Indonesia and Australia, Manek said. The company also works with China, Malaysia and Vietnam amongst others.
VDML has a range of 14 basic synthetic colours as well as a range of lake colours (non-soluble). Its food colours are used across different industries including manufacturing of ice creams, cakes, confectionery, soft drinks, canned foods and dry snacks.
It does not work directly with manufacturers; it works with distributors in countries across the globe meaning that large amounts of food colours are sold each time.
The new factory is located beside its current facility and is a nearly fully automated production facility.
Manek said: “Technology has changed and therefore we were able to build an automated factory… the purpose of this is first and foremost to eliminate human touch and intervention therefore eliminating contamination.”
Manek hopes that the second production facility will cater to increasing demand and enable VDML to put a stronger focus on its line of lake colours.