American food giant Mondelēz International has today opened a new research and development hub in Poland, forming part of a $65 million investment.
The Wrocław Technical Center will support new products and technologies for Mondelēz’s brands such as Milka, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Oreo. It will form part of the company’s previously announced $65 million investment in nine large R&D hubs, strategically positioned around the world.
Mondelēz aims for these centres to better recruit, retain and develop talent across a range of science and technical disciplines, while accelerating the company’s growth and innovation.
The Wrocław facility will be home to nearly 250 experts – scientists, engineers and other specialists from around the world and is equipped with innovation labs, a large pilot plant and a ‘collaboration kitchen’ – a creative space of 9,500 square meters for new ideas and experimentation.
Executive vice president of research, development, quality and innovation, Rob Horgrove, said: “With these advantaged technical centres, we’re focusing our investment in research, equipment and capabilities, driving innovation to support our growth strategy, margin and quality platforms. These R&D hubs will improve speed, efficiency and effectiveness, while increased scale will enable us to more quickly address evolving consumer needs.
“Poland is one of our most important markets in Central Europe, and Wrocław is a modern city that’s open to investment. Embedding one of our largest technical centres here clearly signals the importance of Poland and Europe within our global R&D network.”
The Wrocław hub joins four other fully operational Mondelēz International Technical Centers: East Hanover, New Jersey; Curitiba in Brazil; as well as Bournville and Reading, both in the UK.
The remainder of the company’s network of redesigned technical hubs – in India, Singapore, Mexico and China – are expected to open in the second half of 2017 and in 2018.
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