Thai Union has officially opened its Innovation Hub in Wageningen, Netherlands, marking the latest expansion of its global innovation network. The Innovation Hub focuses on product and packaging innovation for the Group’s ambient seafood brands. Around 40 product, process and packaging developers, nutritionists, sensory and consumer scientists, and innovators are working at or for the Innovation Hub, collaborating closely with Thai Union’s brands and the Global Innovation Center (GIC) in Bangkok.
The Innovation Hub is officially open: Patrick Tassignon, Thai Union’s Senior Innovation Director Ambient Seafood, Maud Hulshof, Deputy Mayor, Municipality Wageningen, His Excellency Asi Mamanee, Ambassador of the Royal Kingdom of Thailand to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Thiraphong Chansiri, CEO and President Thai Union Group, and Prof. Ellen Kampman, chair holder Nutrition & Disease at Wageningen University and Research, at the opening ceremony.
Thai Union has invested into a state-of-the-art innovation facility dedicated to market-driven innovation and product development. It will serve all the Group’s shelf-stable seafood brands and support our consumers’ need for tasty, nutritious and sustainable diets.
Thiraphong Chansiri, CEO and President of Thai Union Group, said: “With the Innovation Hub here in the Netherlands, we are strengthening our global innovation capabilities. Our GIC in Thailand focuses on fundamental research, especially on utilizing and valorizing our raw material. This work directly benefits our Innovation Hub in Wageningen, where we can quickly respond to the pulse of our markets through collaboration with our brands, our customers, and our consumers. Alongside our SeaChange® 2030 sustainability strategy, innovation will be our key differentiator to revitalize our products in our markets.”
Patrick Tassignon, Senior Innovation Director Ambient Seafood, said: “We strategically chose Wageningen for its excellence in food science and nutrition. By partnering with Wageningen University & Research, start-ups, and other companies, we aim to embrace their knowledge and innovative spirit. This environment will inspire us to create groundbreaking innovations, driving our ambition to become the world’s leading marine health and nutrition company.”
Professor Ellen Kampman, Chair holder Nutrition & Disease at Wageningen University & Research, said: “Being able to collaborate with Wageningen University & Research, Europe’s no. 1 university in nutrition and food science has attracted many multinational food companies to establish innovation centers here. Thai Union as one of the world’s major seafood companies adds a marine protein element to the ecosystem of Wageningen – and we look forward to collaborative research with them. Welcome to Wageningen.”
Capabilities of the Innovation Hub
The Innovation Hub is designed to drive innovation across Thai Union’s brands and regions, offering advanced facilities to support the entire process from concept to market. Key features include:
- A pilot plant forming the core of the Innovation Hub. It replicates the capabilities of a full-scale Thai Union factory, offering flexibility to install new innovative equipment and enabling the team to design, trial, and test innovative food concepts.
- An analytical lab equipped with high-precision tools for physical and chemical testing to validate the safety and quality of Thai Union’s products.
- A packaging lab for concept development, prototyping, and testing of materials and functionality.
- A sensory lab with sensory booths, designed with controlled lighting and ventilation, for Thai Unions product and packaging development teams to evaluate how consumers perceive and respond to Thai Union’s products and innovations.
- A user experience kitchen welcomes consumers and evaluates how they experience products and innovations. It will also host co-creation sessions with culinary chefs, customers and brands as well as serve as a dynamic environment for food prototyping.
Several product innovation projects Thai Union conceived or finalized in the Innovation Hub are already entering key markets, such as John West’s ECOTWIST®, the biggest packaging innovation in the category in the United Kingdom, which packs the same amount of tuna into a redesigned and lighter can, saving over 400 tons of steel, 1,500 tons of ingredients that consumers typically don’t use, and avoiding around 65 tons of plastic shrink wrap or 300 tons of cardboard each year.
Now open, the Innovation Hub team will soon begin welcoming consumers, academia, partners, and customers for potential collaborations.
