Olam Cocoa opens new innovation centre in US

Olam Cocoa has opened its new Cocoa Innovation Centre (CIC) in Willowbrook, Illinois, US.

Offering innovation capabilities to support the company’s customers in North America, the new facility will join five other centres worldwide.

Olam’s new facility will provide assistance to customers regarding the refinement and reformulation of existing recipes.

It will also support the development of new products in various categories such as beverages, cereals, chocolate confectionery, dairy, bakery and ice cream.

Olam Cocoa CEO Gerard Manley said: “By investing in modern facilities like Willowbrook, we support our customers to satisfy consumer needs, and by being transparent on issues such as sustainability and product provenance, we are also ensuring that we help to stimulate demand which will support cocoa farmers and provide long-term viability to the industry.”

The company also unveiled a new branding look for its portfolio of cocoa product brands, namely deZaan, Unicao, Macao and Joanes, as well as launched a completely new cocoa product brand for the North American and Asia Pacific markets.

Olam Cocoa North America vice-president Matthias Richter said: “The North American market continues to see growing demand for products containing cocoa as exemplified by the recent projection that the US chocolate market’s retail value sales will grow by 9.9% from 2016 to 2021.

“As experienced by our customers at today’s opening, this Cocoa Innovation Centre is a valuable resource that will help them to maximise opportunities related to these demand increases.”