One of the world’s largest cocoa processors is using Crown material handling equipment to help it keep up with the world’s growing appetite for chocolate.
Guan Chong Bhd, which produces cocoa-derived food ingredients including cocoa mass, cocoa butter, cocoa cake and cocoa powder, runs a busy material handling operation exporting its products to Europe, the Middle East, China, Japan and other Asian countries from its facility in Pasir Gudang, Johor, Malaysia, using a full material handling solution from Crown.
The company has been using Crown RMD and RD Series reach trucks, PE Series rider pallet trucks and CG Series LPG counterbalance forklifts for over 10 years and plans to continue expanding its operations with the brand because of the equipment’s reliability, efficiency and safety.
The management of Guan Chong’s 10,000 pallet spaces – which are in use 12 hours per day with 200 daily dispatches seven days a week – is carried out by a large number of contracted staff.
The company rents its equipment from Crown to best match staff numbers in busy periods.
Assistant Logistic and Warehouse Manager Tenh Swee Kheng said the use of Crown material handling equipment, which includes highly-efficient Crown pantograph-equipped double-deep reach trucks, has resulted in substantial efficiency increases across Guan Chong’s operations.
“Using Crown lift trucks has added more than 50 per cent to our capacity, so it creates a lot of savings in material handling,” Mr Kheng said.
“We have a number of these units in our warehouse and they are helping our operation to run more smoothly. Reliability and safety is another important factor for Guan Chong.
“Of course, the equipment is very reliable and also our staff is very happy with the Crown trucks because they have safety factors built-in to the design; good visibility and a strong alert when reversing for picking and storage.”
Guan Chong is expanding its operations on new frontiers and has continued to place Crown at the centre of its material handling operations.
“We’ve also invested in Crown equipment in the next country where we’re setting up operations, which is Indonesia,” he said.
“I think it’s a very good partnership in terms of the support Crown can offer our business.
“Guan Chong has been in business for 30 years and we’ve been using Crown material handling equipment for the last 10. I think that continuing with the brand is a way to help grow our business in the future.
“Crown is definitely the brand I would promote for high density, high-reach storage.”
Guan Chong began operations in the early 1980s, originally trading cocoa beans then processing cocoa in its first factory in Muar, Johor.
The company is one of the top cocoa processors in Malaysia with a capacity of 80,000 tonnes. It has recently expanded its operations with a grinding plant in Batam, Indonesia. Guan Chong’s output is contributing to Johor’s position as the ‘chocolate hub’ of Malaysia, making-up around 85 per cent of the country’s cocoa grinding capacity.
Guan Chong is a proud member of the World Cocoa Foundation, an international membership organisation that promotes sustainability in the cocoa sector.