The company has invested about €1m ($1.2m) into the facilities to decode, design, and deliver taste solutions for leading food and beverages brands.
To meet the demands of its partners and to accommodate its growing team, the company recently moved to the Gold Tower Building in the Dubai Multi Commodities Center (DMCC), Dubai’s dedicated hub for global trade, business and specialist industries.
Symrise has been operating in the Middle East for many decades leading to the first opening of its first sub-regional offices in Dubai in 2005. Since then, the company has seen double-digit growth year-on-year with its partners across the Middle East region.
The new sub-regional centre spreads across 10,500 sq ft and occupies the entire lower penthouse level/36th floor of the Gold Tower. The workspace has been designed in line with the company’s four pillars of sustainability in mind: footprint, innovation, sourcing and care. It is working towards achieving carbon neutral status, to support the Symrise AG global objective of halving its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and reaching climate positive operations from 2030 onward.
The facilities are designed to take customers on a journey, and support the development of consumer-led concepts and taste solutions for high-growth categories, beverages, culinary, dairy, snacks, and confectionery.
The premises will allow the company to support diverse working styles and is split into a variety of working and meeting areas, for Symrise Middle East’s expanding cross-functional teams to interact and collaborate. The dedicated application and sensory laboratories are intended to help the teams from marketing, sensory and consumer insights to regulatory, technical, and commercial.
The sensory booths, where panelists taste, evaluate, and describe flavors in application, features equipment and programs to help design solutions meeting customers’ expectations.
Dirk Bennwitz, president flavor Europe, Africa & Middle East, said, “We feel very excited to embark on the next phase of our business growth through our new sub regional center. This will help us further consolidate our strong foothold in the Middle East & Africa sub region. Our investment in the new hub, our human resources, and the ultramodern creation, development and application facilities will allow us to identify and decipher game-changing industry trends and deliver innovation to our customers across strategic categories and the future of food segments: functional beverages and plant protein.”
Sofiane Berrahmoune, director for the Sub-Region Middle East and Africa, and the managing director of Symrise Middle East, said, “Symrise is leading in meeting the needs of its customers and with this strategic expansion we will deliver even greater speed to market. Our clients, partners, and visitors will benefit from enhanced infrastructure as our state-of-the-art labs and culinary show kitchen will enable customer centric on-site collaboration and co-creation.
“The modern lab will help us customize products to local and regional tastes with international standards. And our advanced facilities will enable us to better serve demand in the market and optimally align our business with our customers.”