USA
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enabled by market share gains in key segments including
Chocolate & Confectionery Fats, Dairy and Special Nutrition.
California Oils Corporation was successfully integrated,
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through principled management and deployment of AAK’s
customer-intimate go-to-market approach.
AAK USA is heavily engaged with the food industry to
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formulations in preparation for new regulations from the US
Food and Drug Administration taking effect in June of 2018
that ban the use of these oils in all food categories.
Investments in assets and people continued in 2017 to
support the AAK go-to-market and customer co-development
models. Two new Customer Innovation Centers were
opened, one in Edison, New Jersey focusing on chocolate
& confectionery and bakery applications, and another one
in Louisville, Kentucky featuring a bakery lab and state-ofthe
art pilot votation equipment to support scale-up and
increased speed-to-market for customers. Construction of a
third innovation center in Richmond, California has begun.
This will feature a bakery lab as well as a dairy lab that will
act as AAK’s global center of excellence for plant-based
dairy applications. In support of AAK’s West Coast expansion,
a fully staffed Customer Innovation team has been
established in Richmond.
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rebranding to AAK USA Foodservice to align with and
leverage AAK’s strong market presence. Our Foodservice
business had a record year, delivering market share gains
through strong customer support and connectivity. To support
continuing volume growth and a strong mix improvement
towards specialities, investments in capacity are underway in
the Louisville and Port Newark facilities.