360˚ of innovation Redefining the way the food and beverage industry innovates
Managing your product portfolio can be risky, disjointed and time consuming. We want to change that. Bringing together a distinctive combination of science, technology and industry expertise, we’ve created a market leading, end-to-end service.
For you it means improved speed to market, less internal disruption and better returns on your R&D investment. For us it’s a step change in the way our sector innovates.
Our services
Leatherhead has a varied level of services we can offer our clients.
Why us?
We, together with our sister companies Oakland Innovation and Sagentia, are a distinctive combination of specialist organisations who collectively provide a full menu of innovation services to the food & beverage sector. We deliver some of the best creative thinking in the world and have experts in the scientific and business disciplines relevant in the food & beverage industry helping you de-risk the innovation process. We deliver strategic thinking together with practical know-how.
Supporting the innovation lifecycle
From market landscaping and opportunity identification, through product concepting and supply chain concerns, regulatory and food safety aspects and finally production and post launch support, we can help you. We offer discrete services such as challenge testing a food product, running a consumer trial, redesigning a production system component or profiling a market. And we can provide holistic services such as undertaking new product or process development for you spanning multiple stages of the innovation lifecycle.
Our people
We have 250+ scientists and consultants with expertise in the food & beverage industry. This includes nutritionists, virologists, chemists, microbiologists, sensory scientists, mechanical and electronic engineers, physicists, mathematicians, regulatory experts and software developers. Most of our experts have PhDs and collectively we speak over 22 languages allowing us to provide a truly global service.
Our facilities
Our Group has two dedicated R&D facilities: one in Epsom and one in Cambridge. Together they provide approximately 20,000 sq ft of food & beverage consumable and device lab space. This includes facilities for chemistry, microbiology, microscopy, texture, food functionality, electronics, 3D printing and facilities for confidential projects. We also have a proprietary consumer database and can provide both consumer panels and expert panels for food tasting and device UX testing.
Connected in the industry and beyond
We are networked extensively throughout the food & beverage industry and can provide you with access to industry best practice and know-how. Often disruptive innovation looks to other sectors for inspiration to completely rethink a product or process. Our access to and experience of other markets, such as medical, industrial, personal care, home care and consumer health, allows us to bring the insight from other sectors to bear on your innovation challenges.
At the interface of food and technology
We are expert in where food consumables meet food hardware such as in food devices or gadgets. These could be in the form of novel dispensing machines, or “single serve” devices. With our expertise in mechanical and electronic engineering, fluidics and thermal engineering and food science and microbiology, we are able to take on the comprehensive nature of these products which traditionally span multiple disciplines. We can also undertake the food safety and regulatory aspects of such developments.
