Today Unilever has announced its intention to build a new global Foods Innovation Centre in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The Foods R&D organizations, currently based in Vlaardingen (the Netherlands), Heilbronn (Germany) and Poznan (Poland) will be co-located in the new centre.
Amanda Sourry, President Unilever Foods: “The Foods Innovation ecosystem in Wageningen will bring together a strong combination of in-house R&D and external science and technology, talent and facilities, increasing the impact of Unilever’s own resources and capabilities, and ultimately creating the innovative power that we need to provide leadership in Foods”.
The R&D Home Care, Personal Care and Refreshment organisations that are currently based in Vlaardingen will move to the Innovation ecosystems in Port Sunlight (Home & Personal Care) and to Colworth Science Park (Refreshment). These moves and the move of the Foods R&D organisation from Vlaardingen to Wageningen lead to the fact that the Vlaardingen site will close over time.
Unilever will now start the consultation process. The building of the Foods Innovation Centre in Wageningen will only commence following the completion of this process. We expect the total project to be finalised by the second quarter of 2019.