Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/1483036
66 tobaccoasia Issue 6, 2022 November / December By Thomas Schmid When Hertz Flavors holds a grand opening ceremony for its brand new Indonesian factory on Novem- ber 28, it will be true milestone for the well-known German flavor manufacturer. While other flavor houses, serving a myriad of different industries, do indeed run production facilities in Asia, the Hertz factory is a definite first as far as a European company entirely dedicated to making tobacco flavors set- ting up a full-blown facility in the region is concerned. Indonesia wasn't picked out of a hat, of course. The country only trails behind China as the world's second largest tobacco market. And Indonesian consumers' love of kretek cigarettes also makes the na- tion one of the highest consumers of tobacco flavors. Operated as a joint venture with a local partner and registered as PT. Hertz Flavors Makmur Indonesia, the factory is located in the Ngoro Industrial Park near the town of Mojokerto, some 35 km from Surabaya. A long time in the making Tentative plans for the Asian venture already emerged years ago at Hertz Flavors' German headquarters in Reinbek, a town just outside of Hamburg. "The plans existed for quite a long time, but we had to wait for the right timing to finally get going," said Sascha Pages, the firm's managing director for sales in the APAC region. While the factory already started producing prior to the grand opening, it started out with less elaborate tasks. "We began with rather simple processes, importing key flavors from our main factory in Germany and diluting them here in In- donesia to the ratios ordered by our customers," Pages divulged. But since then, the facility has moved on and now also has moved into manufacturing flavors from scratch, and which follow the respective recipes obtained from Germany. "Pretty soon it's going to be on the best way to have quite a library of all kinds of flavors that have been manufactured on site." Hertz Flavors' New Factory in Indonesia Besides a development lab, the factory also has a QC lab. Credit for all: Hertz Flavors