SunOpta Opens New Innovation Center in Minnesota

25 Jun 2015 --- SunOpta Inc., a leading global company focused on organic, non-genetically modified and healthy foods, announced today that is has enhanced its research and development platform with the opening of its new SunOpta Innovation Center at the company's offices in Edina, Minn. The new SunOpta Innovation Center is an important part of the company's strategy to bring innovative product offerings to its global customers who strive to meet the demands of a sustainable consumer shift towards organic and healthy foods.

The new innovation center significantly increases SunOpta's product development footprint and includes new space and technologies to engage customers in the product ideation and development process. The new center supports a growing team of 22 food scientists, engineers and technicians working throughout the company. In addition to new product development, the innovation center also supports the company's operations through process and formulation re-design, in alignment with SunOpta's goals to increase profit margins.

"The new SunOpta Innovation Center is the cornerstone of our company's research and development strategy to drive revenue growth by investing in new product development to meet the growing demand of our customers," said SunOpta Chief Executive Officer Steve Bromley. "As a leading manufacturer of organic and healthy foods, our research and development capabilities are an important component of our vertically integrated platform as we deliver value to our customers by bringing innovative products to market."

"SunOpta's investment in research and development meets the growing demand from our customers for new and innovative products," said Jim Gratzek, Senior Vice President of Research and Development. "This investment in new product development and formulation redesign is crucial to our goal of being a value-added partner for our customers. The new SunOpta Innovation Center increases our research and development capacity and allows us to meet our customer's needs and be more nimble in our response to market shifts."