DMV to centralise innovation

11/02/05 DMV International has announced plans to open a new Innovation Centre for Food & Nutrition in December 2005. The new centre will be located in the heart of ‘Food Valley’, an internationally recognised centre of excellence in Food Sciences in the region of Wageningen-The Netherlands. The main purpose of the new centre will be to create a place where customers, marketing and R & D can interact.

The new centre will allow the company, which is the industrial arm of Campina to lever its output, shorten supply lines and bring products to market quicker. “The new centre will have a number of advantages to us. We currently have people dispersed around the place and this allows us to pull our resources together”, R & D manager, David Clark told FoodIngredientsFirst.

Meanwhile locating in the Wageningen region indicates a closer cooperation with Wageningen University and Research Centre. “Ingredient companies tend to be more involved with external R & D centers. Food Valley is very accessible to us. We hope to increase interactions with them. It will give us an access to equipment and knowledge. For those at Food Valley it will give them a good taste of what types of new products are coming to market” Clark said.

DMV has filed twelve patents over the last years and has won a number of innovation awards and nominations for its ingredients. 2005 will also see DMV innovate with Clark revealing that a number of developments are in the pipeline. The company mainly focuses on creating products that are used as textures in food and will continue to develop products that support the immune system and work to lower blood pressure.

Meanwhile DMV spokesman Lex van Moorsel said that the planned merger of Campina and Arla is still on schedule, and expects the deal to be rounded off by the middle of this year. Campina is currently in talks with farmers and waiting for clearance from the EC authorities.