Hearthside Food opens European nutritional Bar facility, expands in Idaho
Hearthside Food Solutions based in Downers Grove said it opened its fourth European nutritional bar production facility and also doubled its nutritional bar capacity in Boise, Idaho.
Both expansions were completed ahead of schedule and in response to continued strong market growth in nutritional bars.
Hearthside, founded in 2009, operates 25 full-service production facilities, 13 of which produce bars. The company also operates a network of internal R&D facilities, food labs, test kitchens and pilot lines providing innovation, formulation, concepts and recipes.
Nutritional bars, which include protein bars, sports nutrition bars, meal replacement bars, functional bars and diet bars are characterized by complex ingredients, formulations and recipes.
The new European nutritional bar facility is located on Hearthside's Leerdam, Netherlands manufacturing and R&D campus. The high-capacity facility increases Hearthside's European nutritional bar capacity by over 40 percent. This facility also leverages Hearthside's extensive European bar formulation lab and the over 3,000 proprietary nutritional bar recipes in the Hearthside bar catalog.
The company also announced the doubling of production capacity at their Boise nutritional bar formulation and production facility. First acquired in 2015, the 185,000 square-foot-location, previously a Nestle/Power Bar facility, was one of several acquisitions that have expanded Hearthside's nutritional bar presence.
"We have over 53 food scientists, commercialization and innovation support specialists in our R&D and innovation group. Our continued aggressive investment in R&D, product innovation, recipe development and nutrition innovation has fueled our nutritional bar growth in North America and Europe," said Rich Scalise, Hearthside Chairman and CEO.
Based on industry data, the overall bar segment is estimated at $2.9 billion with nutritional bars representing $1.8 billion. This makes nutritional bars the largest and fastest growing portion of the overall bar category.
Both the new European production facility and the Boise capacity expansion are now fully staffed and operational.