Chi Forest, one of the fastest-growing beverage companies in the country, has started construction on its seventh wholly owned production facility, a move aimed at bolstering its supply chain nationwide and boosting delivery to central and western regions of the country.

The plant, based in Xuchang, Henan province, was launched with an agreement signed on Wednesday. Covering 223 mu (14.9 hectares), the project represents a total investment of over 1 billion yuan ($147.5 million).

The facility is expected to enhance the company's logistics response in Henan and neighbouring regions, expand the logistics radius to within 300 kilometres, and reduce the reliance on deliveries from production units in other regions, Chi Forest said.

The expansion comes two months after the company opened in Xianning, Hubei province, a 200 million yuan "one-stop R&D innovation test base" — a 20,000-square-meter facility dedicated to research, pilot production and product incubation.

The centre integrates laboratories, mini-factories and pilot lines, allowing the company to validate innovations such as liquid nitrogen fresh-lock processing and non-artificial colouring before scaling them across production.

The Xianning base serves as Chi Forest's innovation centre. Its pilot lines can switch among 11 major beverage categories and 49 subcategories, enabling rapid validation of new products and technologies.

Since the launch of its factory program in 2019, Chi Forest has opened six smart manufacturing plants across China. The addition of the Xuchang plant completes the company's supply chain footprint nationwide.

Chi Forest's product portfolio spans sparkling water, electrolyte water, traditional Chinese medicine-inspired herbal tea, iced tea and vitamin water, with sales extending across China and exports to more than 40 countries and regions in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

So far, the company has invested nearly 8 billion yuan in infrastructure projects to bolster its manufacturing and research and development.

"The new facility allows Chi Forest to consolidate its competitive advantage in high-quality beverage production and rapid regional response," said Wang Pu, co-founder of Chi Forest. - China Daily/ANN