Flavourings and functional ingredients company Symrise has moved into its new research centre at its headquarters in Holzminden. With the new building, the company says that it is promoting interdisciplinary research dialogue between its two divisions, Scent & Care and Flavour & Nutrition.
“Around the world, new trends are coming into existence every day and consumers are developing new needs,” said Dr. Heinz-Jürgen Bertram, CEO of Symrise. “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.”
Symrise has invested €10 million in the new building. Per year, the Group spends more than €100 million on research and development.
Spread over four floors and 2,400 square meters of floor space, the research centre provides room for 90 workers. Along with offices, there are communication and conference rooms for customer presentations and meetings with external cooperation partners as well as universities and institutes.
“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,” added Bertram. “A special point of emphasis was put on researching functional ingredients for healthy nutrition and conscious personal care.”
The company paid special attention to sustainability issues during construction of the building. Waste heat from the surrounding laboratory buildings is used in the form of steam condensate to provide at least 75 % of the heating for the new building.
About 20 percent of Symrise’s total staff works in research and development. Six percent of the company’s investments are also made in this area. Since the merger ten years ago, the company has applied for 411 patents and more than 1,500 product brands and trademarks. The company also created more than 600 new jobs during this period.
