+ 44 (0) 1400 283090
Bühler opens its CUBIC innovation campus |
 After a construction period of 20 months and an investment of about CHF 50 million, Bühler Group is today officially opening its CUBIC innovation campus with eight Application Centers. “We are with this driving forward our strategy of innovation, training, and development,” says Stefan Scheiber, CEO of Bühler Group. “Together with our customers, partners from industry and science, academia, and start-ups, we are using the CUBIC to conduct research into new and sustainable solutions that we can apply to successful business ventures. And, we are taking a step forward here in providing modern training and development,” says Scheiber. |
| The global challenges associated with nutrition and mobility are becoming increasingly urgent. How can we sustainably feed and provide mobility for a population of nearly 10 billion in 2050? Addressing these issues and responding to them with sustainable, commercially attractive solutions is the goal of the innovation campus. “This is our contribution to transforming the urgent global challenges of our time into solid business solutions together with customers, partners, academia, and start-ups,” says Stefan Scheiber, CEO of Bühler Group. “In this campus, we are also promoting new professional skills and competencies, modern learning and working methods, and collaborating with our partners.” Every year, the company invests a sum in the three-digit millions in research and development (R&D). In 2018, this amounted to CHF 145 million or 4.4% of turnover.
The three-story CUBIC is designed to accommodate up to 300 people, and is, in itself, a model of sustainability and innovation. The building uses 15% less energy than comparable structures of its size. Its smart electrochromic glass facade was coated on equipment from Bühler Leybold Optics. This enables Bühler to slash energy consumption for heating and air-conditioning by as much as 50%. Building sensors measure carbon dioxide levels, air humidity, temperature, and flow of people to continuously fine-tune the functionality and energy consumption of the CUBIC. On the basis of this smart building concept, Bühler expects to be able to sustainably optimize the operation of the building. The CUBIC complies with the sustainability standards of Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design), which certified the structure by awarding it a gold rating.
In terms of its design concept, the new innovation campus is integrated into the Bühler site in Uzwil as the bridge that links the development, engineering, and design teams with the modernized Application Centers and the factory. This enables Bühler to develop solutions together with customers, start-ups, and industry and research partners up to the point of market maturity with much higher speed and efficiency. The CUBIC represents Bühler’s purpose of “Innovations for a better world” and it focuses on promoting new training and development methods. Among other things, it embraces the dual education system of Switzerland, housing apprentices and academics, as well as youth and experience.
Project teams from all Bühler business areas currently reside in the CUBIC. Many of them are developing digital solutions, including Bühler Insights, a cloud-based IoT platform for digital services, which was created in close partnership with Microsoft. About 20% of the R&D budget went into the development of digital solutions in 2018.
“The CUBIC campus will become the epicenter of our collaborative ecosystem,” says CTO Ian Roberts. “It embodies our innovation spirit and culture, where we will inspire, discuss, understand, and derive actions that will support us as an industry to create more sustainable value chains, while contributing to addressing the burning environmental and societal challenges of our time.”
Shorter time to market thanks to the Application Centers
In the Battery Lab, researchers are continuing their efforts to develop a new, continuous process for mixing electrode slurries applied in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. In the Grinding & Dispersing Application Center, Bühler is developing wet grinding and dispersion solutions, for example for making printing inks. In the Die Casting Application Center, five die-casting cells are installed for training operators and for conducting customer tests. Many of these developments are already incorporated into modern applications for the e-mobility industry.
In the Pasta Application Center, the latest pasta is being developed, for example high-protein pasta containing flour from pulses or products with a proportion of microalgae. The Grain Technology Center, at 3,000 square meters, is the world’s largest Grain Milling Application Center. It also has its own Analytics Lab. Among other things, the Nutrition Application Center develops textured vegetable proteins –alternatives for the growing number of flexitarians. Together with customers, the Bakery Innovation Center develops wholesome, fresh bakery products.
In the Chocolate Application Center, new flavors and novel processes for cocoa-based products are tested. In the Coffee Application Center, customers test low-energy roasting processes to develop new taste variants.
The CUBIC and the Application Centers will be presented to Bühler’s partners from industry and academia on the occasion of the Bühler Networking Days 2019. On August 26 and 27, 2019, Bühler expects to welcome nearly 800 guests from process industries around the world to this event.
Keynote speakers at the Networking Days 2019 include, among others, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway’s first female Premier Minister, and Stefan Palzer, CTO of Nestlé. Read more about the speakers here: https://networkingdays2019.buhlergroup.com/speakers/
Find out more about the Bühler Networking Days here: https://networkingdays2019.buhlergroup.com/ |
NewCold fills UK’s biggest deepfreeze
NewCold fills UK’s biggest deepfreeze
Hunt is on for second UK facility
In the Spring of 2018, NewCold unveiled its newly-completed deep frozen storage and distribution centre which, says the company, is the largest of its kind in the UK and is now, often near to capacity.
At last year’s opening ceremony in Wakefield, customers, dignitaries, staff and well-wishers gathered on the 16.5-acre site to mark the occasion and hear from NewCold’s Country Director, Jon Miles regarding the impressive facts and figures surrounding the new storage and logistics facility.
“Today sees the culmination of 6 years dedicated work,” announced Jon Miles, “and the opening of a food-handling facility which, in terms of size, performance, sustainability and low energy consumption, raises the bar to new heights – until now, not seen in the UK.”
The Wakefield plant handle’s 3,000,000 pallets annually and with a total volume of over 4 million cubic metres, the giant deepfreeze has the capacity to store 143,000 pallets – at a constant, minus 23 degrees. 175 pallets come in and out every hour and just five minutes is required to unload NewCold’s bespoke-designed moving floor trailers.
Featuring some of the most advanced automated technology of its kind anywhere in the world, the NewCold plant is fully automated, and minimal handling maintains product temperature at all times. The operation is driven by Davanti software which has been improved year on year specifically to get optimum use of the automation. Furthermore, the dispatch bays are deep-frozen, whereby many conventional stores are chilled.
“Not only does the facility operate at around 50% of the energy consumed by conventional deep-frozen storage sites,” adds Jon,” but also, given the proximity to the motorway network, 90% of NewCold’s delivery points can be reached and returned from within a driver’s shift. This improves customer service and keeps ‘food miles’ to an absolute minimum.”
NewCold’s founder and CEO Bram Hage commented on the ‘challenges’ met and overcome by the NewCold team during the development and growth of the Wakefield site and referenced similar greenfield projects undertaken by NewCold elsewhere in the world.
“This is the coming together of talented people, both from NewCold and our many supply partners and customers, to formulate a truly global consolidation of skills and recourses in the supply chain.”
“It was a fitting conclusion to a great afternoon”, concluded Jon Miles. “From the start, Denise Jeffrey and Wakefield Council have helped greatly, including 3 years ago with the introduction of many new recruits – 75% of whom, I’m pleased to say are still with us and remain part of our 200-strong team.”
Jon went further, to say that NewCold has so far committed around £100m on build cost alone, and their growth plans over the coming two years will see further investment, including the recruitment of an additional 70 personnel.
“With the success of the Wakefield facility and the increasing demand for a quality temperature-controlled logistics offering, NewCold are actively looking for a site for their second UK facility.”
The NewCold logistics operation expands in line with their core business and so far, comprises 50 tractor units and 80 temperature-controlled trailers – many of which are high-volume double-deckers with auto-loading.
Flexible Structure Delivers Oakland International Supply Chain Opportunity
Flexible Structure Delivers Oakland International Supply Chain Opportunity
A specialist multi temperature supply chain operator which supplies chilled, frozen and ambient food to the UK and Ireland’s major supermarket chains has come up with temporary solution to expand their existing short-term stock holding.
Oakland International Chief Executive and Co-Founder Dean Attwell explained: “During this period of uncertainty surrounding our exit from the EU, the need for Oakland customers to extend their existing stockholding is becoming an everyday requirement.
“I’d originally seen the Spaciotempo semi-permanent buildings during a visit to one of our customers in Ireland and I was so impressed with the quality of the structure I could see it working for our Redditch facility, particularly because of its classification as a non-permanent construction.”
Oakland International chose to hire Spaciotempo’s 15m x 60m Neivalu-style warehouse on a 6m eave. The temporary warehouse features a thermo roof and gables, 40mm thick steel-clad sandwich panels, three personnel doors, one electric roller shutter door and 22 90W LED lights. Oakland has the option to purchase the building at the end of the contract.
A BRC double A accredited business and a specialist at providing contract packing, storage, picking, food distribution and brand development support for ambient, chilled and frozen food, Oakland International supports retail, convenience, discount, wholesale and food service markets.
Strategic Development Manager at Oakland International Peter Vaughan said: “The temperature-controlled food market is a specialist area so the demand from the leading supermarkets, as well as smaller chains, is very high. As chilled and frozen products are key components of Oakland International, we needed to maximise our temperature-controlled capacity, so we could respond immediately to new contracts and further develop the business and to achieve this, we needed to move our ambient products out of our existing facilities and into a separate warehouse, with the Spaciotempo building being ideal for storing our ambient goods.”
The standard of construction and visual appeal of the temporary Spaciotempo warehouse surpassed Oakland’s expectations with the building doing exactly what Oakland needed it to do. The quotation process was quick and hassle-free and the information provided by Spaciotempo was clear.
Added Peter: “It took the Spaciotempo team just 14 days to install the building, meaning we could begin using the additional space within a very short space of time, which was just what we needed. The team involved in the construction were excellent and the whole process was hassle free.”
Erudus secures integration partnership with wholesale digital services specialist
Erudus secures integration partnership with wholesale digital services specialist
A leading provider of food product data has announced another integration partnership, this time with a digital services specialist for the wholesale foodservice industry.
Erudus has partnered with RNF, which provides a suite of services dedicated and tailored to the industry including a mobile ordering app and a digital marketing and advertising platform.
Now, users of RNF’s Beam Commerce platform who have signed up to Erudus, will receive enhanced product data during the purchasing process.
It is the latest move from Erudus as it continues to promote the use of manufacturer data across the industry, having partnered with Nielsen Brandbank and launched integrations with other app providers in the last 12 months.
The partnership comes during a boom in demand for apps amongst wholesalers, with five wholesale foodservice apps now in use across the industry, despite none being launched until 2018.
RNF, which was established in 2009, became the first developer to create a bespoke mobile ordering app for the wholesale foodservice industry.
The developer works with 18 wholesalers, including Blakemore Wholesale Distribution and Bestway Wholesale.
Rob Mannion, founder and managing director at RNF, said: “The partnership is fantastic news, as we continue to see more foodservice operators switch onto the potential of mobile ordering and digital customer engagement.
“The data we receive from Erudus will form part of a high-quality user experience, seamlessly integrating product specifications into the ordering process.
“I’m pleased to be providing customers with reliable online information on their food products, in a world that is becoming increasingly aware of technology, and what we eat.”
Jon Shayler, chief operating officer at Erudus, added: “We’re excited to be linking up with a developer that is well-respected in the in the industry, and recognises the importance of data in the modern age.
“This means even more manufacturers, wholesalers, and caterers will benefit from Erudus, with just under 90,000 of them currently signed up to the platform.”
Erudus, which is approaching its fifth year in business, has experienced significant growth in the last year, including seeing its number of users grow by 800 per cent.
The data provider, which launched in 2014, hosts the specifications of major manufacturers including Heinz, Kellogg’s, and Unilever.
For more information visit www.erudus.co.uk.
Disadvantaged Ride High children benefit from donated cold storage unit
Disadvantaged Ride High children benefit from donated cold storage unit
The recent delivery by Blue Cube PCS of a previously used cold storage unit went to some rather unusual four-legged clients earlier this month.
The temperature-controlled rental company were delighted to donate an ‘end of usable life’ cold storage unit to the Ride High Equestrian Centre, home of Ride High, a charity working with disadvantaged children to increase their social and educational outlook through the use of horses.
Mark Giles, Blue Cube PCS Fleet Manager, was delighted to be able to deliver the unit, “We’re so pleased to see this unit being put to good use. At the end of their fleet lives as temperature controlled units many go through an environmentally ineffective disposal process, so we’re always investigating different options to try and have them utilised. We’re so proud to support such fantastic work here at Ride High and look forward to coming back to visit to see how the unit is being used in the future.”
“We’re thrilled that we can now utilise more safe storage space to continue our work with the generous help of Blue Cube,” explains founder and CEO, Rachel Medill.
“We have 88 children who come to us through the charity every week, they are highly disadvantaged and are referred from health care and social care professionals,” explains Ms Medill. “These children often come to us when they are suicidal, self-harming, caring for their parents, living in foster care, or can’t be in school because they’re too traumatised.
“They ride for an hour and then they do classroom work. With the horses you have a mechanism to get them engaged in a way that schools simply can’t. Many come to us and simply refuse to put pen to paper, but if you give them a horsey quiz after they’ve ridden they’ll do that.
“By the time they leave us the things they value more are the relationships they’ve made and the confidence they’ve built, they’ve made relationships with positive adults, they’ve got a friendship group and they’ve got increasing confidence.
“The biggest challenge for the Ride High Equestrian Centre is to continue to support the charity. This site is a social enterprise of the best sort but because it is such a big site we totally rely on the generosity of people, like Blue Cube, to help us on a pro-bono basis.
“Our plan is that the equestrian centre business that we run alongside the charity will support the work we do. For instance, we are running corporate training through the equestrian centre, so we actually train teams of people covering leadership and teamwork skills using horses. We’re lucky to have supporters like Blue Cube who have given us help, so I’m excited for a bright future for Ride High.”
FROZEN FOOD INDUSTRY RECOGNISES PIONEERING PRODUCTS OF 2019
FROZEN FOOD INDUSTRY RECOGNISES PIONEERING PRODUCTS OF 2019
The best new frozen food products in both retail and foodservice have been recognised at a glittering awards ceremony in London.
The annual British Frozen Food Federation’s (BFFF) Product Awards showcase the finest innovations and product excellence across the frozen category, culminating in an awards event and Gala Dinner Dance at the Park Lane London Hilton on June 13th.
Yorica UK Ltd scooped the prestigious Retail Product of the Year for its double chocolate cookie frozen dessert, which is free from 14 allergens.
Meanwhile, Paramount 21 Ltd took home the Foodservice Product of the Year with its headed and gutted coated whitebait, which is Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified.
The BFFF competition received entries from across the industry with the overall winners being selected from categories across both retail and foodservices, including Best New Ethnic or World Cuisine Product, Best New Bakery Product, Best New Starter Product, as well as special awards for innovation.
The retail awards are unique in that the winners are judged by panels of independent consumers from across the UK who mark the products for appearance, taste, innovation, packaging, preparation instructions, likelihood of purchase and value for money.
The winning products in all retail categories received high praise from the judges, with Aldi’s mince pie and brandy butter ice-cream – which picked up the Gold Award for Best New Ice Cream – described as ‘perfection’ and ‘a must-have for Christmas’.
Strong Roots Food Company made such an impact with its broccoli and purple carrot bites it was honoured with the Special Award for Innovation within retail, with one judge saying: “Loved everything about this product.”
Meanwhile in the foodservice awards, the Gold Award for Best New Ingredient, Component, Accompaniment Product went to Patchwork Foods Ltd for its bacon jam. The same product also picked up the Special Award for Innovation. Praised for its ‘unique flavour’ and ‘strong, balanced bacon taste’, the judges were impressed by its versatility as a savoury accompaniment.
The foodservice awards are well respected throughout the catering industry as all the entries are impartially judged by representatives of the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs, who, as executive chefs, catering managers and recipe developers, are expert in their field and uncompromising in their assessments of the entries.
Richard Harrow, BFFF chief executive, said: “This is my first awards event as chief executive and I am incredibly proud of the hard work and creativity demonstrated by all the entrants and the BFFF team. The impressive innovation happening across frozen is incredibly encouraging, especially considering the important role the sector has to play as we look towards a future of increased value for the consumer and decreased food waste for us all.
He added: “Our Product Awards are testimony to the dynamism and development within the frozen category. Standards were exceptionally high, showcasing the very best in new product development and innovation. I’ve been really encouraged by the number of businesses and brands putting their products forward, which speaks volumes about the confidence they have in their offering, as well as the future of frozen.
“We are looking forward to being able to further recognise and reward the people behind the products with the upcoming BFFF People Awards, entries for which open later this summer.”
Click Here for a full list of winners.
For more information about the BFFF Product Awards, please visit www.bfffproductawards.co.uk
+ 44 (0) 1400 283090
