SHANGHAI — Symrise subsidiary Diana Pet Food on July 6 celebrated the opening of its latest pet food palatant manufacturing factory in China. The state-of-the-art facility in Chuzhou, Anhui Province, is the company’s first Asia Pacific plant to house a spray dryer and measurement center specifically for powdered palatant solutions.

The company plans to address the growing Asia Pacific pet food market with enhanced palatant solutions, including powder products under its SPF and Vivae brands.

The facility is an expanded and upgraded version of the company’s previous pet food palatant plant in Chuzhou. The new design covers 12 times more land surface and features 20 times more building space.

“This site marks a turning point for Diana Pet Food in APAC [Asia Pacific],” said Bertrand de Launay, president of Diana Pet Food. “Our investment in China indicates the beginning in our journey to structure and strengthen our presence in the area to meet the growing demand of this highly dynamic market.”

The new plant will give Diana Pet Food more control of quality and safety and allow the company to source raw materials locally for a more steadfast supply chain.

“We detach the design of our industrial footprint from random events (such as Covid-19, or any other supply chain events),” said Alain Symoens, general manager of Diana Pet Food APAC. “As they would happen anyway during our customer relationship journey, our new plant shows and confirms the efficiency of Diana Pet Food model and our motto ‘the closer, the better.’”

Diana Pet Foods’ new measurement center in the new Chuzhou facility, named Panelis, will conduct research on the feeding preferences and behaviors of dogs and cats. The company will offer these insights to its customers to help them fine-tune palatability for successful pet food products.

Panelis will work in tandem with Diana Pet Food palatability experts in France, Brazil and the United States. The company ensured its research methods are reliable, objective, repeatable and controlled. Pets used in these studies will be kept in a pet-friendly and stress-free environment.

In total, the company houses 980 cats and dogs spanning 60 breeds. The company also monitors more than 2,000 pet-owning households in France to help inform its pet food palatant development.

Diana Pet Food also shared its new Chuzhou facility will follow its Corporate Social Responsibility standards to incorporate several sustainable measures. The facility will follow LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification guidelines, which include collecting and using rainwater, optimizing energy consumption, and improving indoor air quality and noise control to benefit the health and comfort of its employees.

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