Planteneers continues its expansion into North America with the opening of its Customer Center of Excellence in Aurora, Illinois this summer. Planteneers brings its functional ingredient systems into the plant-based food and beverage space to enable brands to create products for the flexitarian, vegetarian, and vegan consumer. In this new Aurora facility, Planteneers can: host customers for collaborative product development sessions with a full plant-based meat laboratory (with a plant-based dairy laboratory coming online soon after the ribbon-cutting), develop ingredient solutions that work for US consumers, and house sales, distribution, marketing, product managers and R&D team members.
The grand opening will take place Wednesday, June 26th at the new facility off Butterfield Road in Aurora. CEO of Planteneers’ parent company, Stern-Wywiol Gruppe, Torsten Wywiol will cut the ribbon officially opening the facility along with Matthias Moser (Managing Director), Karl Chang (Global Commercial Director), and Dr. Dorotea Pein (Director of Innovation). The global Planteneers team – along with a dedicated US team – dedicated the last three years toward growing Planteneers’ footprint and brand within the North American market and will continue to lead the team in the coming years.
Kyle Borkovec, R&D Manager for North America and the North American team will focus on the expectations of American consumers. “Our portfolio comprises three product areas – plant-based alternatives to meat and sausage products, seafood, and cheese and dairy,” said Borkovec. “In plant-based sausage products, our focus is on alternatives to raw sausages like salami and chorizo and in meat alternatives we naturally address the BBQ classics, ground meat, and our new marbled steak options. We’ve also tailored the plant-based seafood line ingredient solutions for salmon filet and smoked salmon, shrimp, calamari, sashimi, fish sticks, and breaded filets. Cheese and dairy products are also interesting from our perspective,” said Borkovec. “Manufacturers can use our systems to make plant-based alternatives to whipped cream, traditional hard cheeses like parmesan and feta, ice cream and cream cheese.”
The Customer Center of Excellence Grand Opening will feature Planteneers’ ingredient solutions used in products, but with an added culinary spin. Food Network’s Julia Child Challenge finalist, Chef Dustin Hogue joins the festivities taking Planteneers ingredient demonstration products and bringing them to the final consumer-centric culinary experience. Chef Dustin Hogue competed with seven other chefs on Food Network’s 2022 show that honored Julia Child’s contributions to the culinary space. Chef Hogue currently operates as a home chef, fitness instructor, and underground Chicago-land culinary operative.
“Plant-based is becoming more important in the North American market. New, innovative products that are similar to conventional animal products will be easier for consumers to integrate into their daily lives, since they fit existing habits. At our new Aurora location with production, R&D, and the upcoming Customer Center, we can address customer-specific requirements for the US market even better,” noted Brian Walker, CEO of Planteneers LLC.
