AAK USA Inc., one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high value-adding specialty vegetable fats and oils, has opened a new Customer Innovation Center located in Louisville, Kentucky. AAK’s investment further expands the company’s North American capabilities with a state-of-the-art bakery lab, pilot plant and analytical lab operated by an expanded team of Customer Innovation experts.

Terry Thomas, President, AAK USA Inc. said, “We have been working to expand our North American footprint by investing in facilities and capabilities dedicated to supporting our customer partners in each region. We recently shared news of capital investments AAK has made to update our Louisville facility, as we strive to improve our supply chain and better serve our customers. I am pleased to share that our Louisville Customer Innovation Center is now operational and represents another important milestone in AAK’s path to excellence as the leading supplier of specialty vegetable and plant-based fats and oils. Each step we take on this journey has been centered around fulfilling our Co-Development promise that we have made to our customer partners. This unique process allows our Customer Innovation team to work with customers to rapidly provide the forward-thinking innovation necessary to create products that consumers will love.”

“Our Customer Innovation team is fully staffed and utilizing our new capabilities in Louisville,” said Mark Becker, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “All aspects of the facility were designed around the stages of our Co-Development process utilizing state-of-the-art technology, so that our team has the tools and resources readily available to support customer innovation and new product development. Our Customer Innovation team is able to overcome formulation challenges in days that customers might otherwise struggle with for months on their own.”

The Louisville Customer Innovation Center features:

“We are thrilled to have Louisville join our global network of facilities,” added Thomas. “It joins AAKtion Lab, which is located in Edison, New Jersey and offers both Bakery and Confection Labs. I am also happy to share news that construction at our new Richmond, California facility is well under way and expected to open in the fall of 2018. Richmond will provide a new bakery lab dedicated to serving our West Coast customer partners. And, our new Global Center of Excellence dedicated to the dairy segment will also be located in Richmond. We will share additional news of the opening of the Richmond facility in the coming months.”

Visit www.betterwithAAK.com and www.aak.com for more information.