On the Street -- Danone Plans Nutritional R&D Center
May 20/BMI Western Europe Food and Drinks Insights -- Groupe Danone has announced plans to open a new innovation center in the Netherlands to strengthen its expertise in the areas of baby nutrition and medical nutrition. The facility will consolidate the firm's existing Dutch-based research and development (R&D) activities and is expected to open in 2012. As well as highlighting Danone's commitment to the area of functional nutrition, the move demonstrates the Netherland's strength as an R&D hub for some of Europe's largest food and drink (F&D) companies.
According to The Federation of the Dutch Food and Grocery Industry, the Dutch F&D industry is worth over 50 billion euros and accounts for 22% of the Dutch manufacturing industry. Over 40% of output is exported, and the industry employs around 140,000 people. The Dutch food sector has a reputation for being highly innovative, and this partly stems from the high priority given to R&D. Around 2% of the turnover from the Dutch F&D industry is spent on R&D activity, a figure significantly higher than the worldwide average.