06 Sep 2013 Symrise SA opens stylish flavour Innovation Centre
Symrise South Africa, the local arm of the giant German flavour multinational, has officially opened a new customer innovation centre at its Isando, Jo’burg, premises. The centre will operate as an R&D hub for Symrise’s team of flavourists and product developers, and as a platform for interaction with customers to explore and trial its many flavour solutions and technologies.
The new facility, stylishly designed and professionally appointed, comprises both savoury and sweet laboratories, flavour libraries, a beverage development lab, a sensory testing zone, and conference/boardrooms for customer presentations and meetings.
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| Cutting the ribbon on a superb Innovation Centre, from left, are Gerald Delettre, Vice President Sales EAME; Heiner Schaper, President Flavor & Nutrition EAME; Rochelle Singh, Business Development Manager Flavor & Nutrition in SA; and Rudy McLean, MD Symrise SA. |
The opening ribbon was jointly cut by two senior German colleagues from Symrise, Heiner Schaper and Gerald Delettre, accompanied by Rochelle Singh, the business development manager who spearheaded the project, and Symrise South Africa MD, Rudy McLean.
In his opening address, Schaper said the centre was an embodiment of Symrise’s commitment to R&D, one of several key reasons for the group’s success – the basis for a competitive position as well as for accelerated growth – and was an investment that will not only support customers in South Africa, but further afield in Africa as well.
“This investment in Isando demonstrates our long term support, not only to the region, but to you as valued customers with us here today, and illustrates our long term commitment to growing together with you,” he said.
Symrise invests over €100m per year on R&D, with over 20% of staff involved in this type of work. In addition to the commercial success of this commitment to R&D, is the 411 patents that Symrise has applied for in the last 10 years.
Schaper also reminded guests that this year is the 10th anniversary of Symrise, but that the flavour house’s roots, history and experience go back 137 years to 1874. Next year, in fact, Symrise South Africa will be 50 years old, having commenced operations here under the name of Haarmann & Reimer in 1964.
“We at Symrise are proud of our South African track record, and for the last several years have grown at approximately double the rate of market growth between 2% and 3%,” he noted.
“In 2012 Symrise achieved global sales growth of 10%, while the flavour business has enjoyed an average annual growth in Euros in excess of 17% pa in the last five years in the Africa, Middle East region, and we want to take this opportunity to thank customers for believing in, and supporting Symrise, without whom this would not have been possible.”
He commented that while in both quantity and value, flavours contribute a small portion to the brands and products that Symrise partners and supports, in the broader context it is an influential player in the food and beverage chain, annually producing vanilla to flavour six million tons of food, strawberry to flavour over a million tons of food, and seasonings for over seven billion portions of snacks.
Symrise: www.symrise.com