Co-Innovation is Driving Cheese Category Growth

Glanbia Nutritionals Cheese Innovation Center (also called the CIC) has become the place to be when it comes to bringing new cheese concepts to life on a large-scale. Built in 2013 as an answer to branded and private label cheese converters to deliver more variety of cheese to the market, the CIC is delivering new global cheese styles, unique flavors and innovative inclusions every day.

Since that time, by focusing on the customer’s needs and the needs of the market, Glanbia Nutritionals has successfully delivered cheese after cheese that saves cost, offers more flavor, or improves performance. 

The CIC works as a growth incubator by having a dedicated Cheese Science team as well as having a very connected product, marketing, sales, quality and operations team tied to each new product. All cheeses, whether customer, science or marketing driven, follow a proven path that brings projects from plants to grocery stores shelves. We asked the Glanbia Nutritionals marketing team to take us through a product’s journey and explain the power the innovation center has brought both customers and consumers ideas to life. 

How does a new cheese go from an ‘idea’ to a consumer item? 

New cheese projects can either come into the innovation pipeline as a customer idea or from Glanbia Nutritionals’ marketing and insights team forming a partnership with the cheese scientists. 

A customer driven project comes directly from one of our customers and is based on trends they’re seeing in the market, or a retailer, food service or food ingredient customers requesting a product.
 
With the expertise in cheese make from culture blending to recipe development, we’ve been able to co-develop cheese concepts with high rates of success.

Our marketing driven projects are fueled by our market knowledge, perspective, consumer research and insights. We watch, always, to see what market trends are happening over time and how we can add value to our customers supply chain. That allows us to push out prototypes for our customers so they can be ahead of the curve and ready. We learn the cheese makes behind new cheese varieties that are experiencing growth year on year and reformulate them to make them taste better, slice thinner, be more affordable or efficient. Our cheese scientist can start creating new products from recipe changes to the milk to culture comparison in the aging process. 

What sets Glanbia Nutritionals’ innovation capabilities apart from the rest?

 When it comes to cheese innovation, two words: Tenacity and Collaboration. We asked our customers what made us different the answer was clear, Glanbia Nutritionals’ bring actionable, workable solutions to existing problems and then works collaboratively to get them to market and ultimately mouths of cheese lovers everywhere! 

How do I work with Glanbia Nutritionals on a new cheese project or learn more about the Cheese Innovation Center capabilities? 

It starts with a conversation. For customers with clear project needs, these are funneled right into the New Product Development Team to scope.

For customers or new customers exploring projects, or just wanting to dig deeper into the Glanbia Nutritionals’ current Innovation library, contact our marketing team today.