GNT Group Invests €3 Million in Future Growth

02 Aug 2016 --- The GNT Group is investing more than €3 million ($3.36 million) in its research and development capabilities: by constructing new laboratory facilities at its headquarters in Mierlo, the Netherlands, the market leader will almost double its capacities for quality control and product development.

With the substantial investment, the company is laying the foundation for future growth and maintaining its number one position in the field of Coloring Foods. Construction works are in full progress and will be finished early 2017. When opening the facilities, several new jobs will be created.

“This boost in research and development is bringing our product development to the next level and insources additional quality control measures to make them even faster and more efficient. The expansion stands fully in line with our long-term business strategy and backs up our targeted annual growth of 5 to 10 per cent until 2020”, says Dr. Hendrik Hoeck, Managing Director of GNT Group. “As pioneer in the field of Coloring Foods, innovation is core to us: we have always been driven by the goal to continuously extend the ease and possibilities of applying Coloring Foods, as well as their precise fit to any product, in order to make coloring food with food the industry standard“, says Hoeck.

The new laboratories are equipped with state-of-the-art technologies for testing, including microbiological analyses and hygiene monitoring. Being situated on the production plant grounds in Mierlo, they will bring research and development activities closer to manufacturing. This allows GNT to better, faster and more flexibly serve the growing number of food and beverage manufacturers switching to Coloring Foods and to fulfil their specific and increasingly complex requirements. In addition, each of the companies’ 11 affiliate locations around the world have application laboratories to provide clients with local knowledge, technical and regulatory support as well as tailor-made advice.

For almost 40 years GNT has been pushing the development of this industry. In the 1990s the family-owned company was the first to use spirulina algae to give food and beverages various shades of blues and greens by natural means. The Dutch firm was first to market oil and fat dispersible Coloring Foods in 2013. Most recently, it introduced the first micronized powders based exclusively on Coloring Foods.