What are Julie’s Biscuits?

What’s are Julie’s Biscuits, are they made by Julie’s Bakery? This was the first question that popped into my mind when I learned about the product. I bet this will be your question also when you chance upon it in supermarkets.

Julie’s Biscuits is the biggest local biscuit brand in Malaysia while Julie’s Bakery is the biggest local bakery chain in the Philippines. No one copied the other as both were coincidentally established the same year, 1981. Both company’s use a female logo/mascot but Julie’s Biscuits is a blond girl while the local chain uses a dark haired lady.

To learn more about Julie’s Biscuits, we were invited to visit their sprawling factory in Malacca, Malaysia. Malacca is about 2.5 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur and is a city rich in history and culture. We received a heart warming welcome as we arrived at Julie’s Biscuits Factory 1. We could only visit 1 of their 3 existing factories due to time constraints. They also have a 4th plant under construction that will be operational in 2017.

I also found out that Julie’s Biscuits can be found in 65 countries including the Philippines. They plan increase distribution to 100 countries, that boggled my mind.

Julie was there to meet and greet all of us, if you notice there’s a twin at the back also.

I’ve never tried Julie’s biscuits so this was an eye and taste opening experience for me. Seeing the products up close, the one that is vaguely familiar to me was the Oat 25 cookies. I tried a number of items but the cream filled biscuits were my favorites like the Le-mond lemon, and cream cheese biscuits, as well as the peanut butter and cream cheese sandwich. I had an impression that the Oat 25 cookie pack costs almost P200 each but I was surprised to find out that they were less than P100 each.

After a little talk and briefing we prepared for our visit to the production area. They provided each one with a set of surgeon like safety gear, composed of a coat, hairnet, mask and booties. We then had to do a through scrubbing of our hands and had to pass more safety measures before we were even allowed thru the door of the factory. I was super impressed by their attention to food safety so you are assured each piece of product they make is clean.

Here’s some snaps of the factory area taken by their official photographer. We were not allowed to bring anything inside but we did get to sample some freshly made cheese biscuits. The trip to the factory line echoes the motto of Julie’s Biscuits’ founder that “What We Don’t Eat, We Don’t Let People Eat“.

We had a little activity to showcase the versatility of Julie’s products. We used the Butter cracker as the main ingredient for our dessert creation. As you can see, my design skills are fairly lacking.

I got a little sneak peak at four products not yet introduced to the market. I’m excited about the Hershey’s dark chocolate vanilla cookies.

For more information on Julie’s Biscuits in the Philippines, you can check out their Facebook Page and Instagram account.