Maple Leaf Foods has leading brands and market shares, but to maintain that lead and continue to grow, we must be the best at understanding our customers and consumers and finding ways to anticipate and meet their needs. Innovation is at the heart of our transformation to a globally admired consumer packaged food company and we are step-changing the role of innovation in driving our business results.

To sustain us over the long term, we need to find ways to make innovation systemic in our company. That means adjusting our internal strategy, structure and processes so we apply our collective knowledge, experience and
ideas to:

  • track the best innovations globally, and quickly adapt them to create exciting and profitable products that consumers want; and
  • develop products and services for our customers that support their business strategies, create differentiation, and deepen our relationships.
A catalyst for this important change is our new ThinkFOOD! Centre. Opening in April 2009, this $12 million facility will be the foremost culinary innovation centre in Canada.

ThinkFOOD!
Designed as a forum to foster creative thinking and collaboration between our businesses, with our customers and our consumers, it will:

  • accelerate the commercialization of successful new product and packaging concepts;
  • create an exceptional venue to partner with our customers on innovation and new menu ideas;
  • drive collaboration across our businesses, to share ideas and identify joint opportunities;
  • provide a hub for consumer research, global food trends and new product innovation.
ThinkFOOD! includes culinary facilities, a foodservice kitchen, sensory and product development areas, teaching facilities and a global culinary insight and trend library. The centre will also be a central hands-on learning environment for sales, marketing and product development staff to develop and share new food concepts and recipe ideas, carry out consumer research and product testing, and evaluate preparation and display techniques.

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