Malaysia Nestle Retirees: 2019

Saturday, 23 November 2019

MNRA VISITS GARDENIA FACTORY - Nov 2019

by CHONG MIN SIN

Breakfast will never be the same again for 38 members, relatives and friends of MNRA who visited the Gardenia Bakeries Bakers Maison in Shah Alam on 12 November 2019. The smell of freshly baked bread arouses the senses and induce an appetite for the Gardenia bread greeted us as we enter the Bakers Maison.

As introduction, a short video explained the Gardenia story in Malaysia and how their products are distributed fresh to consumers on a daily basis. The entourage was then taken to view the whole manufacturing process from a dedicated platform walkway. From this walkway on the first floor, we managed to see the manufacture of loaves and rolls from initial ingredients mixing of flour, yeast and water (dough) followed by other ingredients and fermentation before baking, cooling (Gardenia’s own Twin Towers), line quality inspection and final packing. Fillings for rolls are injected by a dedicated machine.

The group was impressed with the cleanliness of the work area which some commented “as clean as Nestle”. The high level of automation minimizes manual work and also importantly, minimizes human contact with products.

After the plant tour, we were hosted to hot coffee and tea together with Gardenia waffles – yum, yum. We were also introduced to Gardenia new products, including their latest healthier choice “Canadian Purple Wheat 100% Whole Grain” loaf and new variants of “Fluffy” buns and “Twiggies” rolls. Do you know that Gardenia now also manufacture yellow wet noodles? Surprise ya!

We were also offered the privilege to purchase selected Gardenia products at discounted prices.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the visit from the warm reception to informative briefing, interesting factory tour, delicious tea break and even the queue to buy bread. Everyone went home happy with a “goodie bag” of Gardenia products - compliments of Gardenia.

We got feedback that a member's grandson was very happy with the roti and asked his grandmother to go again.

Thank you Gardenia.

We now understand better why Gardenia bread is So Good You Can Even Eat It On Its Own.