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Area Development - Site Selection, Facility Planning and Workforce Development

Bettcher Industries, Inc. Opens Innovation Center In Birmingham, Ohio

06/08/2016
Bettcher Industries, Inc., a leading worldwide developer and manufacturer of innovative equipment for food processing, foodservice, industrial and medical markets, opened its Bettcher Innovation Center in Birmingham, Ohio.

According to company officials, “designed to accelerate innovation throughout all aspects of Bettcher’s business, the BIC is housed in a central location on the global company’s headquarters campus in northeast Ohio. It is a multi-use facility that enables conceptual testing, demonstrations, and strategic collaboration among employees as well as with Bettcher’s customers and business partners.”

Bettcher Industries, Inc. is an ISO 9001-certified, vertically integrated manufacturing company with a global customer base and direct distribution and service in more than 60 countries throughout the world. The company is a leading developer and manufacturer of innovative equipment for food processing, foodservice, industrial, medical and other operations.

The new Innovation Center will be used by all employees; however, Bettcher’s R&D, engineering, sales and marketing teams will be heavy users due to their strategic nature or customer-centric business activities, officials said. In addition, the BIC will serve as a venue for meetings and events aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of evolving customer or macro trends in the industry. These activities include the “Bettcher Idea Factory” team that hosts monthly ideation sessions internally, along with end-user focus groups and “voice of the customer” new product development discovery sessions.

The Innovation Center will also be used for select beta testing on finished products to confirm their performance characteristics and marketing claims, as well as for new product launch training for Bettcher’s worldwide distributor personnel.

Don Esch, CEO, reported that the completion of the BIC is just one part of a larger set of facility improvements being made to Bettcher’s corporate headquarters campus in Birmingham, Ohio.

“In addition to opening the Innovation Center, we have completed a new employee Work Café along with renovating several office spaces within the original Bettcher headquarters building,” Esch stated. “These improvements mean that our entire headquarters property – encompassing the original 1971 structure and the later 2008 building – is equally state-of-the-art in terms of facilities, communications, connectivity and other amenities,” he added.

Paul Pirozzola, Vice President of Marketing said, “The BIC is designed to serve the practical needs of today’s employee owner and the businesses we currently serve, while also lending a mind’s eye to future ideas and opportunities. These ideas will grow our business in new ways – some by design and in some cases, organically. We will anticipate these opportunities and bring them to life in the BIC.”

“At the same time, the new Center allows us to honor the innovative spirit of our founders and their past inventions – and draw on them for inspiration. Our products have been category creators in the markets we have served. We expect to draw on this legacy of success and pioneering to inspire us to be unique and to create value for our future customers,” Pirozzola added.

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