Steve Crocket, Commercial Director, APAC, Caldic,
Caldic has inaugurated its new Food Innovation Hub (iHub) and blending facility in Taloja, near Mumbai, marking an expansion of its food and nutrition capabilities in India and across the Asia-Pacific region. The 32,000 sq. ft. facility brings together formulation and premix capabilities, small-scale blending, pilot equipment, sample production and application laboratories.
The facility is designed to support food innovation, formulation, application development and customised blending, with focus areas including dairy stabilisers and emulsifiers, beverage fortification with vitamins and minerals, and customised premixes. Its location also provides connectivity to Mumbai, ports and key logistics infrastructure, enabling Caldic to serve customers in India and other Asia-Pacific markets.
In an interaction with NUFFOODS Spectrum Asia, Steve Crocket, Commercial Director, APAC, Caldic, spoke about the company’s India investment, opportunities in nutrition, customised solutions for regional markets and the potential role of AI in the company’s operations.
When do you anticipate the Taloja facility will commence commercial production, following the completion of the planned production trials?
We need to complete around three months of production trials first. That puts commercially manufactured product towards the end of the year. We are already selling product through contract manufacturers in the meantime.
What are the key nutrition-focused products and solutions that Caldic plans to manufacture at the new facility?
One of our key growth areas is texturing systems. Texture is important to how consumers experience a nutritional product and how nutritional components are delivered. The same applies to sweetness solutions. Some nutritional ingredients have off-tastes, and we can help address those through flavour masking and sweetener systems.
We also work with vitamin and mineral premixes for nutritional enrichment, as well as extracts. These capabilities can be brought together to tailor a product to meet even highly specialized needs for our customers.
What were the key factors behind Caldic’s decision to establish the facility in India?
The size and growth potential of the Indian market were major factors. Our business here has grown consistently, at double-digit rates, even without a plant. We asked ourselves how we could grow faster, and local production was a strong option.
The plant also allows us to offer solutions across Asia-Pacific that we have globally. We already have initial sales from the plant into markets including Vietnam and Australia.
What are the key challenges Caldic anticipates in serving customers across India and other Asia-Pacific markets?
Regulatory requirements are evolving, with a greater emphasis on quality and documentation. That is positive for us because we have invested in equipment, processes and quality standards. In the short term, meeting the requirements takes work, particularly when selling a product in several countries, each with its own regulation and preferences
A product that works well in India may need a different taste or texture for consumers in Australia or the Philippines. Making those adjustments takes time but given our technical expertise and regulatory insight, we are uniquely positioned to deliver solutions that meet different demands and requirements across markets.
How is Caldic adapting its food and nutrition solutions to address differences in consumer preferences across Asia-Pacific markets?
We have regulatory and quality specialists across Asia-Pacific who can help customers understand requirements in their destination markets, particularly those relating to the raw materials we supply.
We also have application labs and technical teams in individual countries. They gather customer feedback and work with our blending team to adjust a solution for a local market.
What role do you see artificial intelligence playing in Caldic’s manufacturing and nutritional product development activities?
We already use an AI assistant within our sales team to help recommend products to customers. We also have projects under way to explore AI in manufacturing, logistics and supply chain operations, although how best to implement it in the plant is still a work in progress.
How could AI contribute to operational efficiency and workforce productivity at the new facility?
We hope AI will make our teams more efficient. Our aim is to grow quickly without necessarily adding people at the same rate. Ideally, it will help our people to become more efficient and accomplish more.
How do you expect the nutrition market to evolve in India and globally, particularly amid growing consumer interest in protein and nutritional value?
Nutrition is a significant growth area. People are paying more attention to what they consume. We are also seeing interest in protein and in increasing the nutritional value in foods, including in markets where GLP-1 medicines are influencing eating habits.
The question is how to present those benefits to consumers. Some may want an all-in-one product; others may look for something focused on sleep, skin or vision. Those preferences differ by country and continue to evolve.
How does Caldic approach packaging and supply-chain requirements for its B2B nutrition customers, and what degree of flexibility can it offer?
Our Food & Nutrition business Asia-Pacific offers a broad range of packaging. Similar to our blends, we can tailor packaging to a customer’s specific needs, whether that means a one-kilogram or a 20-kilogram pack. Additionally, we can adjust the packaging type and labels to meet local requirements.
This is a key part of our offering, which allows us to deliver solutions all the way from product development and packaging to storage and distribution.
