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Topping out of new Unilever building
The topping out of the Global Foods Innovation Centre, Unilever’s new R&D building, was marked yesterday with a festive ceremony.
Next month building contractor Dura Vermeer will start erecting the curtain walls, followed by installation of the interior walls. Apart from offices and laboratories, the building will also house a mini factory (Pilot Plant), experimental kitchen and an Experience Centre.
The premises will have a floor area of 18,000 square metres and meet strict sustainability requirements. It is scheduled to go into operation in the middle of next year for use by more than 500 personnel from the R&D units in Vlaardingen, Heilbronn and Poznan.
Among the speakers were Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Louise Fresco, chair of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) and Wageningen Mayor Geert van Rumund. They expressed the aim that the sustainable Foods Innovation Centre will link up seamlessly with the aim of Wageningen and WUR to form the knowledge core in the Netherlands in the field of (agro) food and life sciences within the FoodValley Region.