The groundbreaking ceremony for the Mondelēz Beijing Intelligent Warehousing Center was held in Beijing E-Town on Feb 28, marking the acceleration of the landing of foreign investment projects. 

Mondelēz International, recently recognized as a "Lighthouse Factory," will invest approximately 53 million yuan ($7.36 million) to build an intelligent warehousing center, empowering the digitization and green development of the traditional food manufacturing industry.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the Mondelēz Beijing Intelligent Warehousing Center [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

Joost Vlaanderen, president of Mondelēz, stated that the project will construct a new intelligent warehousing center covering approximately 2,500 square meters, with a loading and unloading area of 700 square meters, capable of accommodating 6,400 pallets of finished products.

As part of the first batch of foreign-funded enterprises to expand operations in Beijing, Mondelēz relocated to Beijing E-Town in 2007. 

With the support of policies and services in the area, Mondelēz now has six production lines, including well-known brands such as Oreo and Chips Ahoy!. 

In recent years, through digital transformation and upgrading, Mondelēz International has deployed 38 cases of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including AI-driven dough production workshops and machine learning optimization of gas consumption, achieving a 28 percent increase in net income and a 53 percent increase in labor productivity, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 24 percent and food solid waste by 29 percent, making it the first "Lighthouse Factory" in Beijing E-Town.

The production center of Oreo [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

According to the plan, the project will digitally build an intelligent warehousing center, achieve full-process digital management through digital system software, operate fully-automatically with AGVs (Automatic Guided Vehicles) and stackers, and build an intelligent park system to realize intelligent vehicle appointment registration and loading management. 

Meanwhile, solar panels will be installed on the top of the warehousing center, with an estimated total installed capacity of 170 kilowatts and an annual power generation of about 240,000 kWh, reducing carbon dioxide emissions; LED lighting systems and environmentally friendly building materials will be used, and transportation routes will be optimized, estimating a reduction of 180,000 kilometers in truck transportation distance per year, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

Beijing E-Town provides "2 (policies + measures) + X (list of support measures)" policy support for the landing and development of foreign-funded enterprises. As of now, the area has attracted more than 150 projects invested by 102 Fortune 500 companies.