Puratos Canada opens innovation centre in Quebec
Puratos Canada has opened an Innovation Centre in Montreal aimed at bringing innovation in product development in bakery, patisserie and chocolate closer to its grocery, retail, bakery and industrial customers in Quebec.
The 3,500-sq.-ft.-facility in the Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent, joins Puratos Canada’s other Innovation Centres in Mississauga, Ont. and Chilliwack, B.C. But this one has the distinction of being the only standalone Innovation Centre in Canada—the others are attached to Puratos plants.
“Quebec is an important region for us,” says Adriana Fazzina, vice-president, marketing at Puratos Canada. “We always had a team there, but we didn’t have a space where we could invite out customers for innovation sessions and creation sessions. It was the next step for us to have a home in Montreal so we can be physically present for our customers.”
The 106-year-old Belgium-based company operates more than 120 Innovation Centres around the world that provide clients with product development, category management and product profiling.
Fazzina says the Montreal centre will take a hands-on approach to help clients, including major grocers and their suppliers, create and potentially bring to market innovative baked goods that respond to consumer and customer needs. The centre can also help clients set realistic profitability targets and analyze existing products to find areas for improvement.
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She notes the Quebec market tends to have more European-inspired products and flavours than in the rest of the country. “I see different types of cakes and pies than you would necessarily find in Ontario. The bread products are slightly more diversified and premium than you would find elsewhere and there’s more fine patisserie.”
The Montreal facility includes enhanced chocolate preparation capabilities, such as a refrigerated marble table and a full-size laminator. It also has two proofers and will add a 140-quart Hobart mixer for large batch testing and formulation.
As part of its Taste Tomorrow program, Puratos uses artificial intelligence to monitor social media conversations around the world on the bakery, patisserie and chocolate industries. It differentiates between trends and fast fashions that come and go.
In addition, every three years Puratos surveys 17,000 consumers around the world, including Canada, to capture micro and macro trends in taste, health and sustainability.
“We try to understand the specificities of what they’re looking for in healthier products or how the perception of healthier products changes throughout the years.”
Results for the latest survey should be available in a few months and clients will likely be invited to Puratos Innovation Centres to be briefed on new insights, Fazzina says. “After we have the new insights, we start creating new baked goods based on those insights.”
In Canada, the last survey highlighted the importance of what Puratos calls the “classic continued”—combining classic products that people know and love with new and exotic flavours.
“If you want to drive innovation, try to propose a spinoff— maybe an apple pie decorated with meringue, which gives it a little different texture and a little bit of a different flavour.”
Staffed with two full-time technical advisors, the Montreal Innovation Centre offers meetings and demonstrations by appointment.
