The food concern Unilever reorganises its research department. Emmo Meijer, head Foods R&D at Unilever: “we have a turn-over of 40 billion euro. Yearly we invest nearly 1 billion euro of the 40 billion in research and development.” Business analysts thought that the output was to low.

Meijer confirms this: ”we should expect more results from research and development, looking at how much money we invest in this.” The plan is to concentrate the research and development centres at a less locations. This means that 240 jobs will be lost. Also the number of research projects is diminished with 50%, this resulted in a more concentrated portfolio. The research deparment at Vlaardingen remains and plays an important role in the plans.

This year a large number of innovations will be introduced to the public: mayonnaise on base of citrus vibres, with a much lower percentage of fat. A beef cube with a jellylike structure. Variants of tea with catechinen and teheaïne. Also new is Frusi, a combination of ice and yoghurt, cereals and fruit. “You should see innovations as a funnel in which many ideas enter and only the best ideas will make it to the market,” says Meijer. “At Unilever and many other companies the pipeline was to wide. We now select at an earlier stage.”

Source: Het Financieele Dagblad