Cereal Partners Worldwide (CPW SA), a joint venture between Nestlé SA and General Mills Inc., today announced the creation of a new Innovation Centre in Orbe (Switzerland). The investment of close to CHF 50 million underlines Cereal Partners Worldwide’s strategic focus on nutrition, health and wellness, and will accelerate the company’s development of innovative and nutritious breakfast cereals. The construction, which started in early 2009, is nearing the halfway stage and is due to be completed by the middle of 2010.
The CPW Innovation Centre will bring together expertise from Nestlé and General Mills in the field of breakfast cereals. This new Innovation Centre will further build on General Mills’s technical strengths and Nestlé’s 50 years of R&D experience in Orbe, as well as on both partners’ know-how in food processing technologies. Part of Cereal Partners Worldwide’s global R&D network, the CPW Innovation Centre will work on breakfast cereal solutions that will deliver consumer benefits, such as improved nutritional content, as well as freshness, taste and texture.
Sustainability and low environmental impact are at the heart of the building project. Local and regional construction materials are being used, such as wood sourced from environmentally responsible forest management, benefiting Orbe and the surrounding communities. Once completed, the CPW Innovation Centre will meet the requirements for LEED certification, a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction as determined by the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
At a press event to make the announcement were Jean-Claude Mermoud, Economic Affairs Minister of the Canton of Vaud; Claude Recordon, Mayor of Orbe; Christi Strauss, President and CEO Cereal Partners Worldwide; John Church, Senior Vice President, Global Operations, General Mills Inc.; and Werner Bauer, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Nestlé SA.
Currently the second biggest breakfast cereal producer worldwide with sales of CHF 2.8 billion in 2008, Cereal Partners Worldwide employs nearly 4,000 people around the world.