World Grain - October 2015 - 37

FEATURE: MORE THAN A LARGE NUMBER OF MILLS

Portland, Oregon, U.S., and ultimately
the Ardent Mills Innovation Center under construction in Denver will be key
elements as well.
"Being able to work with the customer
in that way is something that differentiates us as Ardent Mills," he said. "From
the MIC we can do follow up with our
Innovative Bakery Resources, a bakery
itself where we do test runs or bake the
bread. Having a bakery as Ardent Mills
is pretty unique. Between the Mobile
Innovation Center and the bakery you
can bring practical innovations to life.
I think that helps build that partnership
and helps us do more for that customer
and helps us tell the story of the great
products we have and how those really
look, taste and feel."
From a practical perspective, Stoufer
said the resources help customers save
perhaps the most precious commodity
of all - time.
He said, "Flip the innovation process
on its head and ask, 'Why does it take
months and months and months to innovate? Let's blow that paradigm up.
Let's take innovation to the customer.
Let's take the customer to Denver
when we get done with Ardent Mills
Innovation Center here. Let's bring it
to life in limited quantities with IBR
so we can do market testing. We can
do that in weeks if not days, instead of
months or years. When you think about
consumer tastes shifting so fast, you
can't take a year to get to market. How
do we help our customers change the
paradigm to let's go from idea to market in a matter of weeks?
"We're in a unique positon to be able to
do that with the unique capabilities. We're
committed to that type of speed. Yeah,
we're big, but we need to be nimble."
In December, these Ardent Mills' customer solutions resources will expand
further with the opening of a culinary
center at the company's Denver headquarters. Dye said the MIC, IBR and the
Ardent Mills Innovation Center all will
complement one another.
"So you can take an idea that comes
from the customer at the MIC, do more
www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / October 2015

testing at the headquarters' innovation
center here in Denver and then run test
batches in the bakery near Portland, as
Bill said, literally in weeks," Dye said.
"It will offer a full kitchen culinary experience," Stoufer said of the
Ardent Mills Innovation Center to be
completed later this year. "You'll see
wheat come in, do a full battery of

Moisture?

testing and create great products at the
end. It will complement the MIC and
the customer."
Josh Sosland is editor of Milling & Baking News,
sister publication of World Grain. He can be
reached at jsosland@sosland.com.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and
inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
WG articles, e-mail reprints@sosland.com.

Protein?

Analyzers
capture value
Ash?

Falling Number?
Gluten?

Water absorption?

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World Grain - October 2015

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