That the AIP site visit to Australia's world-class Food Innovation Centre located at Mondelez International's Ringwood facility was oversubscribed was hardly a surprise. Since the opening of the first phase of the centre in February last year, there's been much talk about its value and benefit to the wider industry.
The centre represents the company's biggest ever Australian investment in world best-in-class technology and innovation.
It's the largest centre of its kind in Australia and one of the biggest in the Asia Pacific region.
It is also staffed by the largest food R&D team in Australia, with over 100 food innovators co-located on site.
And it's not just for the benefit of Mondelez.
The innovation centre has been established as part of a program funded by the Victorian Government to build a brighter future for the local food manufacturing industry, with sights set specifically on developing new products for export into the burgeoning Asian market.
The idea behind it is to share best practice innovation collaboratively with small and medium-sized enterprises in order to unlock consumer insights, innovate and commercialise globally-competitive products for the local and export markets. The premise is that large multinationals can learn from entrepreneurs who are flexible and nimble when it comes to generating new ideas, but who in turn can benefit from the scale a company like Mondelez can offer when it comes to commercialising a new concept.
An important part of the program is to attract, develop and retain talent in food innovation and manufacturing, and to this end the centre has developed a higher education partnership with the University of Melbourne and has introduced a formal qualification in the form of a Master of Food and Packaging Innovation with anticipated start in Semester 2 2014.
“It's vital that we develop the next generation of food and packaging innovators,” Angeline Achariya, General Manager, who runs the centre, told the AIP audience. “We need to turn food technologists into innovators, equipping them with the necessary skills in leadership and entrepreneurship.”
Turning to the facility, delegates enjoyed a whistle-stop tour of the centre to see some of the world-class technology and systems in place, including the design lab, virtual store and sensorium (the chocolate pilot lines, however, were strictly off-limits).
AIP Victorian chairman, Michael Grima, has been closely involved on the project, consulting on the development of the design lab. And for the packaging technologists in the group, this hi-tech area was of particular interest.
Equipped with all the tools to enable rapid visual-to-functional prototyping (CAD, 3D printing), the lab allows the marketing, consumer insights and R&D teams to test a number of concepts and prototypes, before choosing the winners to take into the new product development (NPD) process. It also facilitates the development of prototypes for cost optimisation on current products and packaging.
Also of high interest was the virtual store, designed to help innovators quickly test and trial many different in-store changes prior to physical execution in store: shelf layout; pack design/labelling; and optimal location of displays or activations in store.
Incorporated in the virtual store facility, although still in the early phases of testing, is eye-tracking technology which 'watches' how consumers 'shop' in the virtual store, identifying what packaging attracts their attention on shelf and how long it holds their attention.
Tour over, the group gathered to hear Nicolas Georges' take on the new development. In a word, he's excited. In his role as Director Premium Chocolate & Dairy, Research & Development, Asia Pacific, he sees the promise of the project.
He said the centre had the potential to “reignite the food industry” and “make a real difference” so that “we can turn up the dial on the Australian food industry's ability to compete in the Asia Pacific region”.
He said that while it might seem wrong for competitors to collaborate, he believes it's the only way forwardto create a stronger talent pool.
“We need to find what unites us, what will make the sum of the parts stronger as we develop talent that will make this industry a truly competitive player”.
He said cost and risk are the two biggest enemies of innovation. The Food Innovation Centre reduces both of these dramatically, and it's important for industry to start thinking of ways they can the use the centre to help their businesses grow.
The next stage of the project will be to build the facility on a larger scale, adjacent to the Mondelez factory, but entirely separate. This larger facility, to which the food industry will have access, is due to open in August this year.
PKN Packaging News will publish a more detailed article on the food innovation centre in the upcoming May-June print issue, due out early May.
Michael Grima (right) discusses fast-track prototyping in the new design lab with Phillip Higgins of VIP Packaging during the AIP site visit to the Food Innovation Centre at Mondelez International's Ringwood, Victoria facility.
