Bühler to navigate grain processing industry’s evolving demands with new innovation center

20 Mar 2024 --- Bühler’s new Grain Innovation Center in Uzwil, Switzerland, is nearing completion and will support customers in navigating the grain processing industry’s evolving market dynamics and developing “the foods of the future.”

The center will open its doors to customers, partners and guests on October 28, 2024, and succeed Bühler’s former Grain Technology Center, which has served the milling industry since 1951.

In the multi-purpose center, customers from the food and animal feed sectors can conduct trials on new products and explore new processes and solutions. The new facility spans 2,000 sqm and features state-of-the-art infrastructure and cutting-edge equipment from Bühler and its partners.

“By integrating the GIC into Bühler’s network of Application & Training Centers in Uzwil, customers benefit from an ideal setup that enables them to turn challenges into opportunities,” says Christian Geser, project director for grains and food at Bühler Group.

Customers will also have full access to Bühler’s ecosystem of Application & Training Centers at the headquarters, covering the entire protein value chain. 

Changes in grain
Bühler’s former Grain Technology Center, operational for nearly 75 years, needed modernization to keep up with market demands, the company says.

With the food and feed sectors experiencing rapid changes in the past few years, customers need more flexibility, creativity and the right environment to adapt their products.

The Grain Innovation Center will support customers in addressing key issues, such as using local raw materials, increasing productivity and safety and meeting requirements for new and healthier products. 

The construction of the five-story center started in February 2023 and was completed in 12 months. Now, the project has entered its final phase, and the installation of all equipment and systems has begun.

Some of the previous equipment was refurbished for reuse in the new facility. Remanufacturing machines offer not only economic but also environmental benefits, such as resource efficiency by reusing components and waste reduction. Some of the machines were sold to customers, and only a minor portion was discarded and recycled.

Synergy optimization
The modernization project also includes Bühler’s Milling Academy and the Swiss Institute of Feed Technology (SFT). Both will be housed in a new structure strategically located next to the new center to increase synergies. Bühler’s team will gain the skills required to keep pace with a quickly changing industry.

Spanning an area of 1,600 sqm, this new training facility for the Milling Academy and the SFT will have classrooms, an open learning area, meeting rooms, a customer service corner, new laboratories, a workshop area and a larger changing room for customers and employees.

The new building will enable Bühler’s team and customers to adapt and develop the skills needed to keep pace with a quickly changing and increasingly challenging work environment. 

About 800 customers and 150 internal employees were trained in more than 120 training courses offered by the Milling Academy and the Swiss Institute of Feed Technology in 2023.

The building is slated to be operational by January 2025.

The Swiss technology group recently opened a protein application center to focus on technology solutions necessary to go from pulses or grains to finished consumer products.

Edited by Joshua Poole