The Development Authority of Columbus and its economic development partners at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce are pleased to announce that Califormulations, LLC, a unique platform designed to deliver end-to-end food and beverage innovation to consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies and their brands, will soon begin operations in Columbus. The company is a strategic partnership between Symrise, the Green Organic Dutchman Holding Ltd., and a team of local industry professionals.

Califormulations combines food and beverage expertise and innovation capabilities with the ability to quickly develop shelf-ready, scalable products, with plans to create 30+ new jobs and invest more than $5 million in the project.

“It’s always exciting when a company decides to start doing business in Columbus,” said Russ Carreker, chairman of the Development Authority of Columbus. “We look forward to helping Califormulations get established and I am confident that our top-notch quality of life will attract the talented workforce that will want to stay in this region which will pay huge dividends for Califormulations in the years to come.”

This new facility located in Muscogee Technology Park will be the hub for food and beverage research and development along with flexible small scale manufacturing to assist in bringing concepts to market. Work on the facility is underway and it is expected to come online in Q1 of 2020.

“Major packaged goods companies put their focus on agile innovation to help fuel growth around their core brands,” said Paul Graham, president of Symrise Flavor North America. “Agile venturing and creative innovation sprints will replace the traditional and often time-consuming ‘stage gate’ innovation funnel and are changing innovation sustainably.”

Califormulations, LLC, led by president Toby Polhamus, has an industry experienced local management team and is built on a business model designed for speed, agility, flexibility and focused innovation, with each investor harnessing specialized expertise.

“We are excited to build and expand upon the rich history and legacy in the food and beverage industry in Columbus, Georgia,” said Polhamus. “The unique capabilities our facility will have in place for flexible small scale production will provide a platform for a range of diverse food and beverage products thus enabling entrepreneurs and brand owners the greatest opportunity to take their products to market quickly.  Once successful, we will help them integrate back into their internal manufacturing networks or assist in finding large scale co-packers to meet their needs.”  

Polhamus continued, “Equally exciting for us is the opportunity to engage and partner with food and beverage businesses locally.  Doing so enables us to create an ecosystem of synergies and bring greater opportunities to the Columbus area.  For us the Columbus area is home, our families have been raised here and it is important for us to give back to a community that has supported us for so long.  We look forward to the providing opportunities in a range of areas, develop what we believe will be a winning business, grow Columbus, and give back to our community.”

Customers will have access to the expertise located at three locations: the newly formed Califormulations, LLC located in Columbus, Georgia, with 100,000 sq ft for food and beverage development, multi-purpose production, pilot scale flexible bottling and shelf-ready, scalable packaging; Symrise’s regional headquarters in Teterboro, New Jersey, providing global expertise in flavor solutions, including taste for sugar reduced products; and the specialized Symrise Beverage Center in Laguna Beach, California, to inspire creativity in beverage product concepts.

Utilizing the expertise located at these three locations, Califormulations, LLC in cooperation with Symrise will deliver a rapid innovation approach composed of four integrated parts: Insights & Design, Prototyping & Evaluation, Development & Production and the Activation Ecosystem.

The Symrise team brings a proven reputation in beverage innovation and incubation, a comprehensive portfolio of consumer insights, a strong footprint in food and beverage CPG accounts including core listings with global brands. TGOD adds a new element to the business through their expertise in producing premium organic cannabinoids. Using sustainable growing practices, TGOD offers organic CBD and other organic cannabinoids where allowed by local laws and regulations. The end result is a unique, agile, end-to-end approach to innovation with full project management across every step.