Food technology company KaTech, bought by Katharina Hahn in 2012, specializes in convenience foods, and all aspects of dairy products, including the development of dairy-free alternatives. Providing an agile and highly confidential service to its clients, the company has built a reputation for its bespoke, customer solutions driven approach, and is now expanding into new areas.
Alexander Maeße, head of development at Katech, explains to FoodIngredientsFirst the change in demand of convenience foods: “For convenience we can see a growth trend in the food service sector across Europe. To-go concepts are sought after more then ever with demand across all segments – even for non-dairy products. In the dairy market the clean label trend is continued,” he claims.
“Healthy products with sugar reduction, protein fortification and natural flavors is another area of interest for the dairy market. Non-dairy is growing out of its niche existence year on year. Sustainable protein alternatives and the creation of textures that mimic dairy, convenience and meat products are important aspect of creating those products,” says Maeße.
Katharina Hahn explains the secret behind the success of the European based business: “Although its relatively new, KaTech is grounded in the accumulated levels of expertise amongst our people, which is considerable. This means that we can apply a vast knowledge base to find the right solution for our customers, helping to reduce long term costs.”
“Our strong investment structure has secured us the best facilities, and we source our raw materials from a variety of suppliers worldwide, which gives us a major advantage. This combination of equipment, resources and expertise means that we can deliver quality, retail-ready products in a fraction of the time it would normally take,” says Hahn.
“Now as our capacity, infrastructure and team have grown, we are ready to deliver that same level of service to a much broader market in 2016,” she explains.
KaTech employs some of the best technical people in the industry, has an extensive knowledge and portfolio of global raw materials and offers a rapid turnaround of long term, cost-optimized solutions for clients, whether they are responding to consumer trends, troubleshooting or bringing a new product to market.
The heart of KaTech’s R&D operations rests in the Technology and Technical Development Centers in Lübeck, Germany and Chester in the UK. Meanwhile a German production facility in Reinfeld features three full scale manufacturing lines and extensive warehouse capacity, ready to meet the increasing demand.
