PGEO Refinery.
The Kuok Group, a key shareholder of Wilmar, incorporated Federal Flour Mills, now known as FFM Berhad, in Malaysia in 1966. Commencement of other earlier projects include a 400 MT/day soybean crushing plant and a 200 MT/day edible oils refinery in August 1980 and February 1981 respectively for the PGEO Group in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia. Arawana consumer pack oil was launched in Malaysia in 1986. This was followed by the acquisitions of refineries in Sandakan and Prai.
In 1988, the Kuok Group formed a joint venture (JV), Southseas Oils & Fats, with Top Glory, a subsidiary of COFCO in Hong Kong, to build China’s first large-scale modern refinery, drum and consumer pack plant in Shenzhen. The plant was commissioned in 1990 and became a huge success. Arawana oil was launched in 1991 in China and is today the country’s top consumer pack oil brand.
Southseas Oils & Fats Industrial (Chiwan) in Shenzhen, China today.
1991, 1 April
Wilmar’s global headquarters on Biopolis Road today.
The Wilmar Group was co-founded by Mr Kuok Khoon Hong and Mr Martua Sitorus. The first company formed was Wilmar Trading Pte Ltd which had a paid-up capital of SGD100,000 and five employees.
The company’s first project was PT Agra Masang Perkasa (AMP) – a 7,000 ha oil palm plantation in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Today, Wilmar is one of the world’s largest oil palm plantation owners with upstream operations in Indonesia, Malaysia, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.
PT AMP – A mature plantation today.
Refinery in Dumai today.
The plantation project was followed by a 50 MT/day palm kernel crushing plant in North Sumatra and a 700 MT/day refinery in Dumai, Indonesia. Riding on the back of a growing refining business, the refinery, commissioned in 1993, was expanded to 2,400 MT/day by 1995.
The Indonesian business flourished and today we are the largest palm oil refiner, palm kernel and copra crusher, as well as specialty fats, oleochemicals biodiesel and consumer pack oils manufacturer in the country.
1993
Commissioned in 1995, EOGI comprised silos, storage tanks, soybean crushing plant, flour, rice and feed mills, refinery, drum manufacturing plant and consumer pack plant.
Ventured into China through a JV with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) and Top Glory, a subsidiary of COFCO, and started construction of East Ocean Grains Industry (EOGI) which at the time was the first large, integrated oils and grains manufacturing complex in China. Following its huge success, Wilmar and ADM went on about three years later to build five large-scale crushing plants mainly along the coast.
Formed a JV with the Adani Group of India to refine edible oils and manufacture consumer pack edible oils in Bangladesh.
Started ship ownership with the purchase of 6,000 MT tanker, MT. Lisa. The domestic fleet in Indonesia and China started in 1995 and 2004 respectively. The Group’s fleet has since grown to include both owned and managed vessels, with a combined fleet tonnage of about 2.8 million MT.
