Unilever site in Thayngen becomes a competence center for the nutrition of the future

A unique innovation and scaling campus is designed to accelerate new technologies

02-Sep-2022 - Switzerland

An innovation and scaling campus is to be built around the well-known traditional "Knorri" factory, where almost all Knorr products for the Swiss market are manufactured. The plan is to develop and scale innovative technologies and solutions related to nutrition and food production.

Unilever Switzerland and Alphorn Venture Partners (AVP) are teaming up for this ambitious project. AVP works as a venture studio and investor with startups/scaleups on new disruptive technologies, such as precision fermentation and "cell-based foods". Unilever brings its expertise in nutrition and food production. The combination of a leading, globally active consumer goods manufacturer and innovative, agile founders offers great opportunities for the Thayngen location.

In the long term, this will create a unique environment of cooperation between young and established companies, university research, investors and funding programs. Among others, ETH Zurich and KitchenTown are on board.

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The Economic Development Agency of the Canton of Schaffhausen is also involved. It is supporting the planned collaboration between the two companies.

This is made possible as Unilever continues to push ahead with its location strategy in Switzerland. The national company's administration already moved into its new home in the center of Schaffhausen in March. Local and international teams work together there in ultra-modern, attractive premises. In the process, the employees took the design of their new working environment into their own hands.

"Our vision of creating a Swiss center for the nutrition of the future in Thayngen is gradually becoming reality. In the future, not only will the well-known and popular Knorr products for Switzerland come from Thayngen, but innovative nutrition concepts will also be researched under the same roof," says Thierry Mousseigne, General Manager Unilever Switzerland.

"The location in Thayngen is ideal for closing the gap between product development, small-scale production and industrial production," says Daniel Böhi, Managing Partner of Alphorn Ventures. "Being able to access Unilever Switzerland's know-how and infrastructure and work together on solutions will enable us to help new technologies achieve a breakthrough more quickly."

"The cooperation between Unilever and Alphorn Venture Partners creates a unique environment for innovation and collaboration. The direct connection to production at the site and the expertise of the two partners on site create excellent opportunities for development activities and start-ups around nutrition and food production. As economic development agency, we will continue to support the development of this ecosystem in Thayngen," says Christoph Schärrer, Delegate for Economic Development of the Canton of Schaffhausen.

"Unilever's decision to develop the site in Thayngen into a center for the nutrition of the future pleases me. It strengthens Schaffhausen's position in food processing. The project exemplifies the efforts of the Canton of Schaffhausen to establish itself as a region of application for future-oriented technologies," explains Cantonal Councillor Dino Tamagni, Head of the Department of Economic Affairs of the Canton of Schaffhausen.

This initiative fits into a series of activities that aim to establish Switzerland as a world-leading FoodTech location. Together with organizations such as the Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV), work is being done on the vision of creating a FoodTech Valley throughout Switzerland.

Note: This article has been translated using a computer system without human intervention. LUMITOS offers these automatic translations to present a wider range of current news. Since this article has been translated with automatic translation, it is possible that it contains errors in vocabulary, syntax or grammar. The original article in German can be found here.

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