5 December 2007 - AGRANA Fruit, the global leader in fruit preparations for the dairy industry, has opened an innovation and product development center, this time in Brecksville, Ohio, not far from Cleveland. In contrast to the AGRANA group's existing fruit preparations development center in Gleisdorf, Austria, this new facility will be involved in the development of products specifically tailored to the North American market.
AGRANA fruit preparations can be found in a third of the world’s fruit yoghurts. This strong market position is based on continuous research and development work which allows AGRANA to offer its customers innovative product concepts for the growing fruit preparations market. AGRANA’s strengths are products where the natural taste of the fruit and maintaining the original consistency, without neglecting conservation, are key aspects.
In contrast to other global regions, flavors and trends in North America change more frequently. For demographic reasons, special dietary trends are far more prominent in North America than they are in other countries. The addition of health-promoting substances, such as vitamin supplements, to fruit preparations also has a higher priority in North America. It was for these reasons that AGRANA elected to set up a further innovation and development center dedicated to meeting the needs of this market.
Both the new innovation and development center in the USA and the existing facility in Austria employ international teams of trend scouts who are committed to identifying new nutritional trends in the world’s various regions.
New products and processes are developed and extensively tested in close cooperation with marketing and sales experts before they hit the market. Trend and market research is carried out in order to anticipate and capitalize on market developments that far exceed the conventional scope of fruit preparations. AGRANA Fruit has several thousand formulations for fruit preparations.