Danish ingredients company Danisco will expand its flavour creation centres in The Netherlands and Belgium as part of the restructuring of the flavour research and development facilities to improve capabilities and efficiency.
The move is the result of organic growth and a number of recent acquisitions in the flavour domain, combined with the desire to create one centre for 'flavour knowledge' in Europe, reports the company this week in a statement.
This latest action is just a further step in the company's overall plan to drive profitable growth in its flavour division and to see the company rise to among the top five flavour businesses in the world.
'The Dutch unit will be the primary flavour centre for Europe and will develop as a major player in the future for flavour creation, research with excellent analytical capabilities,' said the company in a statement.
Commenting on the expansion, Stephen Catling, the ambitious and dynamic president of Danisco Flavours, said: "This is a logical progression for Danisco Flavours one year after the acquisition of Perlarom.
Our ambition is to become a major player in flavours in the European market and we believe that by creating this new platform in Holland and Belgium we are laying the foundations for our competitive edge in flavour R&D and thereby creating opportunities for profitable growth in the years to come."
The Danisco Flavour Creation Centre will be on the existing site of Aroma 2000, in Uden, Holland. A unit which the company feels is already well known within the industry.
Danisco also announced that the primary application centre for the beverage industry will be in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium where a programme to build and expand further pilot plant and application facilities will commence later in 2003.
Despite the changes, the company said that in order to support its 'one company, many solutions' strategy and to maintain close relationships with its customers, Danisco would maintain a number of local technical application teams. These will be used to support the local markets in Denmark, UK, France, Sweden and Spain. The flavour technical centres in India, China, Singapore and the USA will continue as before.
In May 2002 Danisco acquired the Belgium-based flavour house Perlarom, pushing it up the flavours ladder to world number nine and European number six.