Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa solutions, has moved into Colworth Science Park’s food tech incubator Gastronomica.

Gastronomica is a home for ambitious food-tech businesses advancing the future of food, enabling innovators and industry leaders to scale ideas, tackle global food shortages, and drive sustainable solutions.

Barry Callebaut has moved to the site to bolster its long-term presence at Colworth Science Park, home to The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC). The move reinforces Barry Callebaut’s commitment to the local innovation ecosystem and supports its continued investment in collaborative research and development activities.

Barry Callebaut and The Magnum Ice Cream Company have a long-standing strategic partnership spanning over a decade. Together, the two companies have advanced premium chocolate and beyond-chocolate solutions for ice cream, including the signature cracking chocolate coating that has become synonymous with the Magnum brand.

Valeria Gutierrez, R&D Director at Barry Callebaut said: “Gastronomica offers the ideal environment for strengthening our long-standing partnership with The Magnum Ice Cream Company, allowing us to work side by side with its teams and accelerate collaboration, innovation, and decision-making. Our teams are already collaborating on several exciting projects, leveraging Barry Callebaut’s expertise in chocolate and beyond-chocolate solutions to explore new textures, flavours and ingredient technologies. Combined with TMICC’s deep expertise in ice cream and consumer understanding, these complementary capabilities create exciting opportunities to accelerate innovation and deliver new experiences for consumers.

“Establishing our presence at Gastronomica marks an important step in strengthening our customer-centric approach and underlines our commitment to co-innovation, agility, and developing solutions that anticipate future consumer expectations.”

Nicky Purser, Tenant Relations Manager at Colworth Science Park, commented: “Gastronomica brings together organisations with complementary expertise in food science, consumer research, sustainability and innovation. It gives tenant companies opportunities to exchange ideas, form partnerships and collaborate on projects that advance food innovation and create value for consumers. We are delighted to welcome Barry Callebaut to our growing Gastronomica community. The company has taken dedicated workspace for its on-site team, alongside collaborative meeting spaces for joint project work with The Magnum Ice Cream Company. Our flexible facilities will help the teams accelerate product development and co-create the ice cream innovations of tomorrow. We look forward to supporting this exciting new journey.”