Iconic US bakery brand Sara Lee is setting renewed emphasis on new product improvement with the opening of a modern innovation center. The 10,000-square-foot facility – positioned at the business enterprise’s currently launched Oakbrook Terrace headquarters in Chicago, Illinois – houses a check kitchen, laboratory, storage, and patron presentation space.
It will particularly focus on the latest product traces and flavors growth for Sara Lee Frozen Bakery manufacturers. The US frozen bakery marketplace is forecast to exceed $9.3bn with the aid of 2024, particularly fuelled by way of the swiftly growing food service area in the US, in step with Global Market Insights. The prepared-to-bake segment is one of the quickest-growing segments within the frozen bakery market, due to the drifting customer choice towards convenience products. Frozen items also are recognized for their preserved flavor and longer shelf existence. Ready-to-bake merchandise also permits stores to offer a variety of great ‘just-baked’ merchandise with minimal labor requirements.
The Kitchens of Sara Lee
“The Kitchens of Sara Lee is a milestone in our adventure to becoming the world’s maximum beloved bakery,” said Craig Bahner, CEO of Sara Lee Frozen Bakery. “This new collaborative area brings our culinary professionals collectively with our income and advertising group to boost our product innovation, anticipate new developments and create many extra impossible-to-resist foods for our clients for future years.” The company has appointed Judy
As its R&D director, Lindsey steers the organization’s team of product innovators and culinary specialists, which has doubled in length, considering that Sara Lee Frozen Bakery became an impartial employer in July 2018. Last year, non-public fairness firm Kohlberg & Co. Received Sara Lee Frozen Bakery from Tyson Foods for an undisclosed quantity. The acquisition additionally blanketed the Van’s, Chef Pierre,e, and Bistro Collection manufacturers that had been part of Tyson’s frozen bakery business portfolio.
Singular recognition
“Our group has unique attention on frozen baked items,” stated Lindsey. “We now have a remarkable kitchen and lab where we can transform sparkling thoughts into new products and packaging faster and better than ever. “With an area designed for near collaboration with our customers, we can continue to grow and innovate our organization’s optimum manufacturers.” Morgan Harbour Construction handled the five-month build of the new kitchen, even as Oakbrook-based EWP Architects turned into retained to optimize the distance. Sara Lee Frozen Bakery also operates two manufacturing plants in Traverse City, Michigan, and Tarboro, North Carolina.
