The firm’s Chocolate Academy, a teaching and training center for gourmet professional, was also renovated to accommodate more students – now around 75 people - as part of the Chicago office upgrade.
“The Chicago office expansion is an important milestone for Barry Callebaut,” said Dave Johnson, CEO and president Americas of the Barry Callebaut Group. “The investment is part of our corporate strategy that will provide world-class chocolate and cocoa solutions to our customers by strengthening our presence in the United States.”
Putting ideas into practice
The company’s new applications laboratory features a mini-manufacturing plant with small-scale equipment to simulate full production runs. It will be a place where Barry Callebaut’s technical advisors help customers to develop new concepts and trial them in small batches.
“The Applications Laboratory and Pilot Plants are important additions to our office since they allow us to put conceptual product ideas into actual practice,” said Laurent Besin, director R&D technical services and applications at Barry Callebaut. “Whether creating a new product or improving application prototypes, customers will benefit from innovative solutions that are developed and tested in our simulated environment.”
Barry Callebaut opened the renovated Chicago office at 600 W. Chicago Ave. yesterday. The office has served as the firm’s headquarters for Region Americas since 2007.