BENEO expands German facility for functional carbohydrates

BENEO, a leading manufacturer of functional ingredients for private label use, has expanded one of its overseas facilities. The company has quadrupled the storage capacity at its Offstein facility in Germany, an $8.5 million investment to improve supply chain robustness.

The new high-bay warehouse, which opened in February, allows for increased storage of BENEO’s crystalline functional carbohydrates Isomalt, Palatinose, and galenIQ. The new 25-meter-high (84 feet) warehouse has a storage capacity of more than 8,500 Euro pallets and is located close to both the packaging and shipment operations at the production site in Offstein.

The low-glycemic ingredients can be used in confectionery, bakery, cereals, dairy, sports nutrition products, special nutrition and more applications. Last December, the New Jersey-based company expanded chicory root production at its facilities in Chile and Belgium.

“The new warehouse gives much more storage potential for our functional carbohydrates,” said Dr. Ralph Cartarius, operation managing director at BENEO’s Offstein facility. “It also helps us to gain cost, time, and logistics efficiencies, as well as bolstering our business contingency strategy still further. Previously, the majority of our crystalline Palatinose, Isomalt, and galenIQ were stored externally, as the onsite facilities were limited. This expansion increases our supply security and reduces transport but it also saves valuable time and energy for us to redirect into other operations.”

The production plant for BENEO’s Isomalt was opened in Offstein in 1989 and large-scale capacity expansion was undertaken at the site in 2002, with the next generation carbohydrate, Palatinose, launched in 2005.

Formed in 2007, BENEO is active in over 80 countries, employs more than 1,000 people, and has five state-of-the-art production sites in Belgium, Chile, Germany and Italy.