Customers ordering during the month of June will all be getting a free box of delicious Belgian chocolates. But that's not all. The Group's own festivities will be marked by special customer deals, including 10% extra FREE on all purchases of SuCrem Nova Plus.
Unifine has grown from strength to strength since it was founded on June 19th 2000. Today it develops, produces, markets and sells a broad range of pastry ingredients and ice cream products for fine bakery, foodservice, ice cream and industry. However, it began life when Dutch parent company, ingredient specialist Royal Cosun, purchased the well-known Dohler Food Ingredients which had been serving the European baking industry for more than 130 years. The young business grew mainly through the acquisition and development of synergetic companies within Europe. Each of these were purchased because they manufactured or sold ingredients which were sympathetic to the new organisation's existing portfolio. Thus, the burgeoning Unifine Group was able to shake down all the disparate ranges - and create a single streamlined product base.
It was an impressive portfolio that Unifine eventually relaunched. Sweet and bakery lines were sold under the regrouped Sucrea, Unifine and Fruibel brands and the UK company also acted as agents for macaroon and marzipan products from Odense, Denmark, plus one of Europe's widest ranges of Belgian chocolate.
In the same time period the Dohler connection had gradually been phased out in stages and the current name agreed upon. Today, Unifine has a presence in over 53 countries. It has production facilities in Manage, Belgium (Chocolate, fruit fillings, glazes toppings and compounds), Kerepes, Hungary (Flavours): Darmstadt, Germany and Barcelona, Spain (Pastry mixes, custard cremes, fonds, ice powders).
Customers and technical teams are supported across Europe through the companys Centres of Excellence developed from three of these sites - Belgium, Germany and Hungary - each specialising in their own particular branch of company competence. It is there that customers are encoiuraged by expert technicians to co-develop new tailor-made concepts and recipes and they can be trained in food law and manufacturing (See attached company profile)
There are four CoEs in total. The fourth - with its own state of the art chef's training kitchen - has been created in Breda, Holland, the head office of parent company, Royal Cosun. Breda specialises in tailor-making product development and places great importance in customer partnerships.
In 2010 Unifine Food and Bake Ingredients stands on the brink of a second decade. Following a major move to the other side of Milton Keynes over three years ago, the company now functions out of a purpose-built site which contains warehousing, offices and a state-of-the-art recipe development kitchen, manned by chef patissier Graham Dunton. Most importantly, these are housed within an Applications and Customer Development centre complete with visual aids and conferencing facilities. The complex, which was totally refurbished only last year - is constantly in use to train customers, students - and even the press - in the use of bakery ingredients. In addition, new business has warranted an extra member of staff who recently joined the company's sales and technical team.
'For the future, Unifine maintains a bullish approach to new business and is constantly on the look-out for possible acquisitions,' says UK Managing Director Simon Solway, the man who masterminds the UK operation.
'Unifine's UK agency of the Pruve pastry range, announced in May 2010 is a case in point.' he adds. 'Everything we do is geared to giving our customers a wider choice of products, flexibility in the manufacturing process and better quality at competitive prices. Combine this with plenty of R&D, enthusiasm and inspiration, and we will certainly look forward to celebrating our 20th birthday in 2020.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNIFINE
