I have always enjoyed visiting good companies to get more operational details from the management or the person in charge. Since I spend most of my time sitting in the office reading annual reports, it's a pleasure for me to take a 'break' in between and see with my own eyes, how the products are being manufactured.

This round, I have chosen Spritzer. It is located in Taiping, Perak, a roughly 2.5 hours drive accompanied by my father. If you don't already know about Spritzer, here's a brief introduction. Spritzer is the most integrated and largest bottled water producer in Malaysia mainly engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of natural mineral water, sparkling natural mineral water, distilled drinking water, carbonated fruit flavored water, carbonated fruit flavored isotonic water, teas, toothbrushes, preforms and packaging bottles.

Mr. Sow Yeng Chong, the Group Financial Controller, welcomed us upon our arrival and personally took us on a mini tour around the plant.

The water sources are located directly behind Spritzer's factory. We had the privileges to travel up the hill to see the water sources ourselves. Each water source is locked in a mini brick-made room (I have no idea how to describe it) so as to protect the water sources from pollution. There are in total 8 approved Spritzer's water sources by the Ministry of Health.

In the manufacturing process, Spritzer buys PET resins to convert it into preforms. In case you don't know what preforms are, please refer to the image below.

 

The preforms are then being enlarged into the plastic bottles that you see everyday. The empty plastic bottles will be rinsed and sterilized before clean water is being injected. Then, the bottles will be capped and labeled before being packed and sent out to the distributors' warehouses.

These processes are fully automated and only a few labors are guarding the production lines. According to my estimation, it took less than 5 minutes for a preform to be converted into end product. In fact, Mr. Sow disclosed that Spritzer can produce about 27,000 bottles per line per hour!

After the plant visit, we sat down and discussed the company's prospects and current operational details. Mr. Sow was very friendly and patient in answering all of our questions. He certainly deserves our compliments. 

That's it! I hope that you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed sharing with you all. Please feel free to leave your comments below. Thanks and enjoy your day ahead!