WenChao Group invests AED 735 million in Dubai Industrial City

WenChao Group is investing more than AED 735 million in Dubai Industrial City (DI), one of the region’s leading manufacturing and logistics centres, to build a world-class food manufacturing and distribution plant in the business area. Today, at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, a new agreement was inked (GMIS).

Saud Abu Al-Shawareb, Managing Director of Industrial City, said, “We are honored to welcome WenChao Group into our comprehensive ecosystem. For well over a decade, they have demonstrated tremendous innovation and growth with their production and storage activities, as well as e-commerce logistics.”

He added, “This new partnership demonstrates Dubai Industrial City’s commitment to the Operation 300bn strategies by enhancing the UAE’s industrial sector and diversifying our national economy. This factory will play a major role in localizing food production and distribution and feed our ambitions to develop a more sustainable and self-reliant future.” 

Jiansheng Sun, Chairman of WenChao Group said: “We are excited to set up our logistic hub in Dubai Industrial City, the first significant milestone of our strategic cooperation. We look forward to creating new engines of opportunity for growth and innovation, building on Dubai’s leading position as a hub for innovation. The new world-class logistics and food production facility in Dubai Industrial City will place us in a strong position to manufacture, store and distribute food efficiently while contributing to the local economy.”

WenChao Company, which was founded in Dubai in 2006, has a wide portfolio that includes a retail group that integrates e-commerce logistics, a chain hypermarket called “Wemart,” and food production. The company has also established a number of food and beverage brands, including YaoYi Tea and Tasty Yue and a global trade network that spans nearly 20 countries.

The first phase of the WenChao Logistics Hub Dubai, which will include an integrated warehouse, distribution centre, food processing and manufacturing factory for semi-cooked and braised food, is set to open in the first half of 2022. The more than 950,000-square-foot factory will be equipped with cutting-edge equipment to enable a food production turnover of up to AED 5000 million annually.

Major expansions, sustainable solutions

Since 2012, the WenChao Group has also owned the WenChao Green Farm in Dubai’s Nazwa desert region, where they cultivate over 50 different vegetable kinds across an area of 80,000 square feet. Instead of chemical pesticides and fertilizers, they use environmentally beneficial agricultural methods, such as organic manure and manual weeding.

In 2023, the company plans to enter the vertical farming market by utilizing cutting-edge agricultural technologies to overcome the hurdles given by the desert environment. The second phase of growth will involve the development of a 4 million square foot vertical farm, which is expected to be completed in 2025.