The new 2,400-square-metre centre brings together 90 workers from its Flavour & Nutrition division as well as its Scent & Care division. About 20% of the company’s staff works in research and development and R&D accounts for about 6% of its investments – more than €100m a year.
Symrise CEO Dr Heinz-Jürgen Bertram said that pooling resources from different divisions can help pinpoint new trends and speed the development of innovative products.
He said in a statement: “Around the world, new trends are coming into existence every day and consumers are developing new needs. We strategically incorporate these strong dynamics arising from individual markets and segments into our research work in order to develop innovative solutions early on. That is why we cross-link our business units and pool our research activities. In this way, we realize interdisciplinary projects and can optimally make use of our competencies in the areas of fragrances, functional ingredients and flavours.”
“With our new research centre, we want to strengthen our expertise in research and development, which is the basis for a competitive position as well as for accelerated growth. A special point of emphasis was put on researching functional ingredients for healthy nutrition and conscious personal care.”
The company added that waste heat from the surrounding laboratory buildings has been used in the form of steam condensate to provide at least 75% of the heating for the new building.