Effective bakery innovation: Brussels inspiration
With the opening of its new 6,000 sqm Inspirience Center in October 2014, Puratos now offers bakers a new platform to test and innovate new products or processes in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors. Inspirience marks a new pin in Groot-Bijgaarden on our map exploring European testing centers and their opportunities.
By Nick Thorp, Catalina Mihu
To stay ahead in competitive markets, companies, including bakeries, may need to acquire the skills and processes to create new marketable products. These could be baked snacks which are more health-conscious or have a longer shelf-life, for example. Innovation and New Product Development (NPD) is a discipline which requires a number of elements to get it right.
One of the current key steps to successful NPD is knowing and understanding your customers and markets. Then, using that data to build the product right from the start and bring it to market in the right way, rather than just making a product and hoping the market will accept it. One way to achieve that is to stay close to your customers, listening to their present and future needs. In European Baker, we will often be analyzing the baking/test centers which bakeries, equipment and ingredients manufacturers have in order to explore the innovation opportunities available through guided “virtual tours”. These facilities allow them to demonstrate existing skills and work on NPD ideas by staying close to customers for mutual benefit.
The eco-friendly Inspirience Center
One such center is the Inspirience Center at Puratos headquarters, near Brussels in Belgium, an investment worth EUR 15 million. Puratos is an international group which offers a full range of innovative products, raw materials and application expertise in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors.
The InspirienceCenter houses six laboratories, fitted with state-of-the-art equipment over 3,000 sqm, half of the facility’s total area. Each lab focuses on a different stage of the complex research involved in analyzing and creating today’s food products. The InspirienceCenter’s offices and labs have been designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible: a green roof helps modulate the impact of fluctuations in outside temperatures and slows down water run-off. Automated sun screens reduce the impact of heat through luminous windows, which in turn reduce the need for additional lighting. Smart use of natural resources such as light, air and rainwater means lower consumption of water and energy and lower CO2 emissions. In addition, the ovens have been given their own insulated room to lower their impact on the air-conditioning.
You can read more in the latest issue of our print magazine European Baker!