Allowing the injection of products with viscosities above 15,000 cPs at room temperatures preserving their properties and obtaining a perfectly homogeneous powder end product.
Students of El Limonar International School (ELIS) with which Blendhub has an agreement of collaboration within its talent development program, participated in a workshop on career guidance, “Work experience week”, at the headquarters of the company in Murcia.
Blendhub supports the formation of human capital as one of the values of the society of the future and hosted the ELIS workshop for the third time within its Corporate Social Responsibility program.
As before, the students spent a week in Blendhub, between the 23rd and 27th of February, visiting different areas and the company’s seven centers of excellence: Finance, Raw Materials, Formulation, Supply Chain, Blending and Packaging, Quality and IT.
The tour helped them to better define their future careers.
Blendhub, we are open, we are anywhere.
Recognizing the support for the inclusion of workers with intellectual disabilities
Last Thursday, February 26th, Blendhub recieved a special mention in recognition of its support for the inclusion of workers with intellectual disabilities during the fifth edition of the Laurel Awards. This award is given by the Federation of Organizations for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities of Murcia, FEAPS Murcia.
A total of thirty-one companies were recognized by FEAPS Murcia with a mention for starting to work with the federation. For Blendhub, the award acknowledges the support for the labor market’s inclusion of workers with intellectual disabilities by incorporating an intern in its offices in Murcia.
Organizations that received the Laurel Award, edition 2015, were the Council of Las Torres de Cotillas, Repsol Foundation, NH Cartagena Hotel, Pedro Cano Foundation, Hospital of Virgen del Alcázar de Lorca, the Culture Service of the University of Murcia (UMU), and New Capital 2000.
Blendhub, we are open, we are anywhere.
The fast-changing and complex world in which we live makes crucial for companies the creation of sustainable businesses. They must be able to better understand their supply chains to optimize their costs, mitigate their risks, and innovate in an environment in which their business can potentially be disrupted. For food companies, a better understanding of their supply chains is key in order to preserve security and safety and to optimize their operational models due to the challenging goal of feeding a growing population.
In The Big Pivot. Radically Practical Strategies for a Hotter, Scarcer, and More Open Word, Andrew Winston presents this fast-changing world as a context of both risk and opportunity. Climate change, resource constraints and rising commodity prices, and technology-driven demands for more transparency, are the three mega challenges that are very much related to sustainability and which imply new opportunities for businesses. From his point of view, future development requires sustainability to be a core issue rather than a niche for the so-called green businesses.
Focusing on sustainability drives to a new type of open enterprises, better aligned with a more connected world in which more transparency is demanded. In the food supply chain, transparency allows operational business model optimization, mitigating risk and boosting innovation through collaboration. That’s a radical change when involving food powder blends, a link in the food value chain that traditionally has operated with opacity through the “black boxes”. Thought to protect intellectual property, they also have been hiding information from food manufactures that would allow them to improve their products by reducing their cost or producing them more sustainably; innovating more, by having more access to crucial know-how, and reducing inherent risks in the food sector, through a more sustainable supply chain.
This model is obsolete in an open world in which among some of the issues referred to in The Big Pivot as more concerning for companies’ leaders, are:
- “Fight short-term focus that distracts from creating value”. Andrew Winston states that companies must strengthen their relationships with communities and customers rather than worrying exclusively about stock analysis.
- “Basing company goals on science and the targets we all must hit”, meaning that they must pursue the solution of great challenges, such as eliminating hunger in the case of food companies, as the context of their operations and product or services portfolio.
- “Systematically asking heretical questions”, which is exploring new possibilities and finding out how to contribute, through their everyday activities, to solve the world’s greatest challenges.
- “Collaborate with unexpected partners”, meaning that they must think strategically about how different stakeholders can make them successful.
- “Setting out to build resilient and regenerative businesses” to better adapt to change and manage risks such as resource constraints.
The factory will produce dairy and meat blends.
The company completes the commitment to the American market after the opening of a laboratory and various pilot plants for testing cheese analogues and UHT milk
Henrik Stamm Kristensen, president and CEO of Blendhub, received on behalf of Blendhub the Most Innovative Company in the Region of Murcia Award last Thursday, Feb. 19. This award is given out every two years by the magazine Actualidad Económica. The publication recognized the contribution made by the Spanish company through its modular factory “Portable Powder Blending” (PPB), which allows the production of food powder ingredients anywhere in the world, and to respond more efficiently to the demands and immediacy that the international markets require.
The president of Blendhub received the award from Ignacio Bofill, Advertising director of Actualidad Económica, during an event that was attended by a large group of representatives of institutions from the region of Murcia. Among them, Francisco Martinez Asensio, regional minister of Economy and Finances; Joaquín Moya-Angeler, first deputy mayor and representative of Institutional Relations of the city; José María González, secretary general of the Regional Ministry of Industry, Tourism, Enterprise and Innovation, and Soledad Diaz, vice president of the Regional Confederation of Business Organizations of Murcia, Croem.
Besides Blendhub, those awarded were: Juan Marín Bravo, manager of Campo de Lorca, as Best Entrepreneur; Antonio Muñoz, president of AMC Grupo, as Best Business Career; Abarca Shoes, Newcomer of the Year Award; Grupo Consum, Best Business Initiative; Inforeactiva, Best Public Initiative; Industria Jabonera Lina (Linasa), Best International Strategy, and Grupo Fuertes, which received the Job Creation Award.
The business awards of Actualidad Económica have a track record of twenty years and are delivered at a regional and national level.
PPB is the first mobile and modular plant developed in the world and is internationally patented, which allows the mixing of powdered ingredients in any place or country, requiring only an electrical connection for it. This enables the food businesses great flexibility when entering new markets, significantly reducing their risks of launching new businesses or projects, and optimizing their supply chains.
Blendhub, we are open, we are anywhere.
The company incorporates its first scholarship from the “Capacitas Program” to its offices
Blendhub, through the company Premium Ingredients S.L., has joined the “Capacitas Program” for the labor inclusion of young people with intellectual disability of the “Montoro Alemán” Chair. This program aims to prepare young people with intellectual disabilities for incorporation into the regular labor market through supported employment.
After signing the agreement, the company has welcomed its program’s first intern to its offices in Murcia, who will approach the labor market through a three month job training.
The “Montoro Alemán” Chair for the Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities was jointly created by the San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia (UCAM) and Gmp Foundation to help people with intellectual disabilities in the Murcia region access to the university and obtaining a college degree, this center’s very own, which will endorse their skills for their entry into the labor market.
As pointed out by the UCAM, the “Montoro Alemán” Chair is the first initiative of its kind launched by a private university in Europe and the second created by a university, after the “Promentor Program” by the Prodis Foundation and the Autonomous University of Madrid.
The Chair consists of a two year program of individualized training, aimed at young people with intellectual disabilities aged eighteen to thirty, and a research program. It has the goal of providing a training adjusted to the needs of these youth.
Blendhub, we are open, we are anywhere.
Transparency is closely interconnected with trust; It allows companies to further strengthen their relations with partners along their supply chains and consumers. Transparency opens up new opportunities for businesses, enabling risk reduction and the engagement of consumers. By putting credible and useful data in the consumers and partners’ hands, companies empower them to make informed and better decisions, and that’s in the interest of not only these groups of players but also the whole of society. Three of the most important benefits of transparency for companies are:
Engaging consumers
Technology is making it possible for companies to build closer relationships with consumers. Equally, public scrutiny has been increased on corporation’s performances, supply chains, and products. Customers want to know where the products come from. Companies that are able to efficiently respond to this request transparently are capable of ensuring their customer loyalty, engage them, and reinforce their brands.
The McDonald’s project in Canada “Our Food. Your Questions” is an example of transparency in building solid relationships with consumers by giving them a chance to ask the company anything about its food, as highlighted by the marketing expert Marcus Sheridan in the following TEDx talk in which he presents transparency as an opportunity to build a more sustainable economic system and inspire others.
In the same way, Cara Rosaen, co-founder of the crowd-sourced food guide RealTimeFarms.com, refers transparency as a powerful tool to connect food supply chain by bringing farmers and consumers closer together and allowing both to make informed decisions. Farmers better understand what’s important for consumers and consumers can have a major understanding of what they are buying, optimizing their decisions regarding the environment or their own health.
Helping mitigate risk along the supply chain.
Opacity in supply chains drives companies to certain risks in managing security, environmental impact, finances, management structure or reputation. Simply because of the lack of information. On the contrary, transparency makes it easier for identifying and monitoring those potential supply chain risks, and their management, making use of insights gained for taking informed decisions, as referred in the article “The path to supply chain transparency” from Deloitte University Press.
Identifying operational improvements and new opportunities.
The market for sustainably sourced, ethical and transparent goods and services, even still representing a niche, is growing, particularly if we want to take a brief look at agricultural supply chains. This concern of consumers and a major focus on companies’ activities and products also helps them detect problems, address unfavorable practices in their supply chain and moving in the direction of good corporate practices.
On the other hand, transparency permits to quickly find and fight inefficiencies as well as establish improvement possibilities by collecting data, even in real time, and analyzing them socially, which can be with consumers or partners, leading to growth and operational meliorations. Businesses can make adjustments and determine which products best fit customer needs, discover new opportunities and build solid relationships with suppliers and partners, spread collaboration to innovate and grow, and for building B2B networks, as Don Tappscott indicates in the linked video.
Blendhub, awarded by the magazine Actualidad Económica with its Prize for the Murcia Region in the category of Innovation
Blendhub has been recognized by the magazine Actualidad Económica with its Prize for the Murcia Region in the category of Innovation. This reward is presented every two years and, on this occasion, emphasizes the importance in the food industry of an industrial design developed entirely in Murcia by Blendhub: The “Portable Powder Blending” (PPB) factory for food ingredients.
PPB is the world’s first mobile and modular plant, internationally patented, that permits the blending of powdered ingredients in any place or country, requiring only an electrical connection to do so. This allows food businesses great flexibility when entering new markets, significantly reducing their risks of entering new markets and launching new projects.
The business awards of Actualidad Económica have a twenty-year history and intends to be, according to the organization itself, “a recognition from the magazine to the business and the entrepreneur”.
Actualidad Económica published in its February edition a special on companies based on Murcia Region awarded in various of its prize categories, further innovation, including: Best entrepreneurship, Best public initiative, Revelation, International strategy and Employment creation.
Blendhub we are open, we are anywhere.
Jasper Bouwsma, international consultant and expert in The Business Model Canvas, has visited Blendhub to give a workshop about this tool.
The Business Model Canvas was developed in 2004 by the expert in strategy and innovation Alexander Osterwalder and has gained popularity in the business environment as a replacement of the traditional business plan. The Canvas method is a strategic tool that allows companies to gain flexibility and adapt to changing market conditions. It is divided into nine basic modules, which arise on a single sheet or canvas and reflect the logic to be followed by any company for getting revenue. These nine modules are: Value proposition, distribution channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships and cost structure, and covering the main areas of business for a company, which can be summarized in: Customers, offer, infrastructure, and economic viability.
Alexander Osterwalder unveiled The Business Model Canvas method through the book Business Model Generation, which he co-wrote and which involved 470 contributors. Among them was Jasper Bouwsma who is advising a Spanish company for the first time, since his previous collaborations in Spain had been focused on working with local teams of multinational companies.
On this occasion, Bouwsma visits Murcia, Spain, to familiarize various members of Blendhub’s team with The Business Model Canvas. The company, which developed the world’s first portable factory for blending food powders and developed a new business model around its centers of excellence, has been working on issues related to the implementation of disruptive innovation in its sector and the development of new value propositions for the food industry.
In relation to the objective of this training, Bouwsma says: “Business model has become a buzzword, everyone used it with different meanings. This workshop will introduce a common language in Blendhub so that different team members can contribute,using the same terminology, with the company’s business model, which is trying to bring a challenge to its sector”.