Helping bakers go ‘beyond the bench’

BACK TO ALL NEWS

Helping bakers go ‘beyond the bench’

15 Oct 2025

Joanie Spencer

Since 2008, Joanie Spencer has covered the retail and wholesale sides of the baking industry.
Serving associations such as the American Society of Baking (ASB) and BEMA, Joanie is also in demand as an industry presenter on bakery operations and trends. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communication from Rockhurst University and a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri.

When she’s not running or playing soccer, Joanie spends her time with her husband and 11-year-old son.

LAS VEGAS — Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the baking industry — and the world — Puratos, a leading global supplier of bakery, sweet goods and chocolate ingredients, has made huge strides in how it views speed of innovation and the art of the pivot.

During the International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE), held Sept. 13-17 in Las Vegas, the company not only touted product innovation stemming from its proprietary Taste Tomorrow research, but it also showcased a new partnership with AMF Bakery Systems, changing the game for bakery product development at scale.

“What we saw coming out of COVID was that the speed of innovation was just getting faster and faster,” said Andy Brimacombe, president of Puratos US and incoming president of Puratos North America. “We saw the areas of the market that were growing, and how companies were pivoting toward them for growth. So, the problem statement became, ‘How do we help customers increase the speed of innovation?’”

One impact Puratos recognized in the speed-to-market challenge was line time. Product development in the lab or innovation center — whether in-house or with a supplier — can go through R&D quickly, but it’s only the beginning. Products rarely get to store shelves without line trials.

“We started asking ourselves, ‘What if we could help our customers be successful beyond the bench?’’’ Brimacombe said. “We could make a difference by helping them go from concept all the way to commercialization.”

That was one of the sparks that launched what is now the Puratos Industrial Pilot Bakery, powered by AMF Bakery Systems, located at the Puratos USA headquarters in Pennsauken, NJ.

In the Pilot Bakery, which opened in June, bakers can shorten speed-to-market from R&D through line trials on AMF equipment without disrupting line time in their own operation. Shortening the concept to commercialization timeline does more than create efficient product development; it also allows for more innovation to happen across the bakery landscape.

This latest milestone is just one point in what CEO Pierre Tossut refers to as Puratos’ full “ecosystem” of innovation in the supply chain.

“Our mission is to help bakers around the world become even more successful with their businesses,” Tossut said. “To accomplish that, we have to be more than just a provider of ingredients. We have to become a partner.”

New opportunities for workforce development

While the Pilot Bakery shortens the product innovation timeline, it also creates new opportunities for workforce development and training.

“Not only can we scale products faster, but we can also train the operators who work on the lines,” Tossut said. “The number of activities that we can do to accelerate innovation — whether it’s streamlining the process, troubleshooting or optimizing margins — the concepts can all come together in this place.”

Earlier this year, Puratos acquired the famed Parisian culinary school École Bellouet Conseil, which the company will use for internal and external training.

The acquisition occurred three years after opening the Puratos Bakery School at Pennsauken High School, the first of its kind in the US. The curriculum at the high school creates immediate synergy with the Pilot Bakery as students graduate from the program.

“It’s an opportunity to create full-circle moments,” Brimacombe said.

“We started asking ourselves, ‘What if we could help our customers be successful beyond the bench?’’’ — Andy Brimacombe | president of Puratos US and incoming president of Puratos North America

Inward-focused innovation

While the Pilot Bakery directly benefits bakers, it also has the power to support Puratos’ internal efforts as well. For instance, rather than developing ingredients at Puratos’ Belgian headquarters and shipping to the US, the company can now work on its North American product development in the US.

“Today, we can develop an ingredient and immediately go to the industrial line to understand how it works at scale,” Tossut said. “Here, we can do trial runs much faster and confirm the technology works. It’s speeding up our own innovation.”

It also enables Puratos to offer solutions the company is confident will work in a customer’s operation.

“I learned a lesson early in my career,” Brimacombe said. “Never show a customer a concept that won’t work in their operation. The Pilot Bakery gives us that high degree of confidence that the solutions we propose will work in an industrial environment.”

Technologies, generations joining forces

Speed of innovation — especially for early-stage R&D — depends on cooperation between product developers and machine operators.

“What we see in commercialization is that the customer is looking to solve for the ingredients, but they also have to solve for the equipment,” Brimacombe said. “That’s especially true in the innovation space.”

Partnering with AMF equipment allows for those two sides to come together.

“What often happens is that projects get delayed because the equipment wasn’t considered at the formulation stage,” Brimacombe said. “Now, the equipment is being thought about at the beginning of the commercialization process. When you start earlier, you can get to the finish line earlier.”

While today’s workforce — along with consumer purchasing power — are composed of more generations than perhaps at any other time in history, Puratos’ Taste Tomorrow research is also helping the industry see the impacts of innovation from every point in the supply chain.

“What we see happening in the market is premiumization,” Tossut said. “The need for premiumization is all about ingredients that will help get to that differentiation. Meanwhile, operationally, we’re seeing the need for efficiency and reducing the number of ingredients in the recipe. So, we’re developing solutions in both areas for the new generation of bakers.”

For more information on Taste Tomorrow and the Puratos Pilot Bakery, powered by AMF Bakery Systems, visit the Puratos USA website.

Advertisement

BACK TO ALL NEWS