Seoul Milk on track for record sales thanks to smart Yangju plant

Seoul Milk Yangju plant [Photo by Ahn Byung-joon]

South Korean milk producer Seoul Dairy Cooperative, known for its Seoul Milk brand, operates the industry’s largest local plant in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. The Yangju factory is equipped with a facility that can simultaneously transport raw milk from ten tanker trucks to storage tanks and can process 30 tons of raw milk every hour.

The plant has also introduced the “one-way system,” the only advanced milk production method in the domestic dairy industry, to ensure the supply of fresh quality raw milk and enhance hygiene. “As soon as the lactation process ends, the tank truck transports raw milk directly to the sterilization and cleaning area, eliminating any wait time in another tank truck, and this allows us to get fresh milk,” a Seoul Milk official said on Thursday, when Maeil Business Newspaper paid a visit to the Yangju plant.

In September 2021, Seoul Milk invested about 300 billion won ($230.38 million) to build the Yangju plant, with five floors on an area of 70,000 square meters. As the largest comprehensive dairy plant in Asia, it can process up to 1,690 tons of raw milk, or a third of the raw milk produced by all of Korea’s dairy farms per day.

The plant produces more than 60 dairy products, including fermented milk, infant formula, butter, condensed milk, and milk beverages.

Once it arrives at the plant, the raw milk is inspected, stored, cleaned, homogenized, pasteurized, and cooled. It is first tested for bacterial and somatic cell counts, which are hygiene grade standards that determine milk quality. Seoul Milk strives to produce high-quality raw milk by providing one-on-one health care for cows via designated veterinarians, double-checking somatic cell counts at farms and factories, and expanding support programs to improve the farming environment.

The entire process from milk packing to storage in the cold warehouse is automated, and the refrigerated warehouse can store about 6.5 million 200-milliliter milk cartons. “The entire process of collecting, producing, and shipping raw milk is operated in a smart factory that incorporates information technology such as monitoring and traceability systems,” an official from the Yangju plant said.

Thanks to its strong manufacturing competitiveness, Seoul Milk is on the cusp of topping 2 trillion won in sales in 2023 for the first time since the company’s founding. In addition to its flagship brand “Na 100% Milk,” the company launched a protein milk product this year to expand its presence in the premium milk market. It also introduced cream bakery products using domestic raw milk and diversified its product portfolio with processed milk of various flavors. Seoul Milk posted record sales of 1.97 trillion won last year and is expected to top 2 trillion won in sales in 2023 despite global inflation and the nation’s declining birth rate. Its market dominance is also growing as its share of milk sales in the domestic market increased to 46.7 percent in 2023 from the previous year’s 45.6 percent according to market research firm MarketLink Co.