Chr. Hansen Opens Industry Technology Center in Russia

HORSHOLM, DenmarkChr. Hansen, which has been present on the Russian market since 1998, cemented its position by investing in a major upgrade of office facilities and establishing the Industry Technology Center in Moscow to be closer to local customers and respond faster to their needs.

We are very pleased to inaugurate the new center. We see it is a competitive advantage to have the strength and resources to assist our customers as we do," said Kristian Elsborg, Area Country Manager, North Europe. Local application facilities on the strategically important Russian market will reduce development cycles, increase local service levels and bring us closer to our customers. We can test our concepts in local milk and local applications before we release in the market, and we can react swiftly to our customers technical problems."

Elsborg said the Russian customer base is changing, and demand on products and services are increasing, which provides a great business potential for the company.

One example is our new protective cultures FreshQ® aimed at fresh dairy products, which are well suited for the local Russian fresh cheese product, Tvorog. However, that calls for running a number of trials in order to find the optimum recipe with a good flavor profile, and that we can do in a fast and smooth manner now," she said.

Another potential is within natural colors, as a new law will come into force in Russia in June 2013. The new law is aligned with European legislation requiring labeling of certain synthetic colors. The new application center can assist customers in converting to natural colors by running trials in food and beverage applications, performing light and storage stability studies, etc. until the optimum solution has been identified.