MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, US — Bühler will discuss food industry challenges and celebrate the grand opening of its Food Application Center (FAC) in the United States during a BühlerGO!2020, a virtual networking and engagement event.

The week-long event, which will include speakers and panel discussions, is planned June 15-19, with FAC opening on June 19.

“Bühler GO!2020 is about learning together how the food industry can meet these global challenges with good sustainable businesses that create real impact,” said Andy Sharpe, chief executive officer, Bühler North America.

Bühler GO!2020 will further strengthen Bühler’s collaborative approach to today’s challenges for the food industry, by bringing together more than 500 leaders of food companies, academia, industry associations, government organizations, and startups.

Culminating in the opening of the Food Application Center in Minneapolis on June 19, the Bühler GO!2020 event will focus on framing the global challenges, creating safe and transparent food chains, sustainable protein supplies for 10 billion people, workforce development, and leadership.

“This new Food Application Center will be an important resource for the North American food industry as we focus on the future of food, reintroducing ancient grains, peas and lentils into our diets, and innovating around plant-based proteins; all of this addressing the demands of consumers as diets are changing fast,” said Stefan Scheiber, CEO at Bühler Group. “Many of the global challenges we faced before the coronavirus have only been intensified. Our collective situation has held a magnifying glass to these challenges. It has shown us where we can improve our food supply chain, and our ability to safely and sustainably nourish our population.”

Nearly 50 speakers from the food-processing industries will give expert insights, best practices, and inspiration for its 500 attendees hailing from 17 countries during the GO!2020 event. Not only does the virtual event eliminate traveling time, Bühler estimates that GO!2020 saves around 400 tons of greenhouse gas emissions compared to a physical event, equivalent to the compensation output of 16,000 trees.

“We want to show our customers that they can rely on us even in times of crisis, be it for new product developments, for servicing their solutions, or when digitalizing their plants for the new normal we are now learning to live in,” Scheiber said.

With digital capabilities underpinning a service portfolio increasing yield and capacity, ensuring consistent product quality, providing remote support and reducing unplanned downtime, waste, and energy consumption, Bühler can support its customers efforts to deliver the strong demand they experience today while securing their operational results. In short, Bühler’s digital platforms, myBühler and Bühler Insights, will support business resilience by enabling physical assets to consistently deliver highest performance.

“Our portfolio of digital services has increased our capability to support our customers through good and bad times and underpin industry resilience,” said Ian Roberts, chief technology officer at Bühler. “Over this week, our partners will see that collaboration is a key topic. It is only through collaboration that we, as an industry, can create the needed solutions to mitigate the climate crisis.”

Bühler aims to reduce waste, energy and water consumption in its customers’ value chains by 50% by 2025.

The FAC will be the new Bühler stronghold in developing economically viable and sustainable food solutions in North America. The future solutions developed there will help feed a growing population of nearly 10 billion people in 2050.

 “Innovation remains the lifeblood for sustainable market success, particularly in the food industry,” said Yannick Gaechter, director of the new FAC. “New food opportunities are multifaceted and need to be addressed with partners across the whole food value chain. This is where the new FAC comes in.

“With the FAC, Bühler is helping to create an innovation ecosystem by providing predominantly North American food companies, startups and academic partners with a platform and the capabilities for creating new products and processes that will help address — from farm to fork, and from bean to burger — not only the current consumer trends, but also our global nutrition challenges in a sustainable way.”

Registration for Bühler GO!2020 is available here.