What are AAK’s relationships with universities like?
Are there any established collaborations?
When we initiated the more technical focus of innovation
in our previous company program AAKtion, one focus area
was to align our external cooperation. Working with external
partners is a bit like marketing, you have to get share of mind
before you get top of mind and you cannot be everywhere.
We have a small network of partners with which we have
ongoing dialogues and a number of external projects, mainly
on the more basic technologies and knowledge development.
Where do you see innovation at AAK
in the upcoming years?
AAK has always been, and will always
be, a partner listening to our
customers and responding
to explicit needs and
requirements.
The aim of priority area Innovation within The AAK Way is to
become more than that and we want to continue to challenge
the established. The food industry these days is an amazing
industry with new markets and constant changes resulting
in new requirements and needs. Think about chocolate for
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demands than the traditional ones and there are already
activities in this area. We truly believe that there is much
more to learn from these markets. We are right now working
with the insights which will create new products in 3–5 years.