Maple Leaf Foods Unveils New Food Innovation Facility
Published:06-October-2009
By Staff Reporter
To develop, share, collaborate on new food concepts with customers
Maple Leaf Foods has revealed its ThinkFOOD! Centre, a culinary innovation facility in Canada. It offers a holistic approach to creative thinking and collaboration to facilitate innovation and growth across Maple Leaf's global bakery and protein businesses.
The company said that the centre will be the hub where its experts in product development, brand innovation, food education, customer relationship development, consumer research and global trend tracking come together to share new product ideas and identify joint opportunities to bring innovation to life.
The $12m centre occupies 25,000 square feet on the campus of Maple Leaf's corporate offices in Mississauga, Ontario, and operates as its product development hub, supporting customer research and product testing.
The company said that ThinkFOOD! was designed to provide a central hands-on learning environment where employees can develop, share and collaborate on new food concepts with foodservice and retail customers.
The centre's culinary amenities include presentation kitchens, teaching and demonstration facilities, research labs, product development and sensory testing areas, simulated retail environments, and trends resource library, said the company.
Michael McCain, president and CEO of Maple Leaf Foods, said: "We've created an innovative environment where all of our food innovators can work together under one roof in collaboration with customers and increase the speed-to-market for introducing exciting new food ideas from around the world. ThinkFOOD! is a place where we draw inspiration from a global food basket of ideas and innovate to create products that will delight the palates of our consumers and customers.
"ThinkFOOD! represents Maple Leaf's commitment to innovation, a key underpinning of our growth strategy. The centre is a hub for collaboration on great food and menu ideas, and a place where our employees are empowered to inspire, innovate and grow new areas to satisfy consumer tastes and build on our Company culture that is passionate about food."
