JBT Marel has launched a significant renovation and expansion of its Customer Innovation Center at the company’s Sandusky, Ohio, manufacturing location, with work scheduled to begin this month.

Formerly known as the Food Processing Technology Center, the Sandusky Customer Innovation Center is one of three global JBT Marel facilities specifically designed to mirror customers’ production lines for real-life testing and prototyping. Sandusky also joins a broader network of twenty-two customer technology centers operating under the global JBT Marel umbrella.

The approved project includes a 3,880-square-foot expansion east of the existing technical facility. Groundbreaking is planned for this month, with construction expected to take six to eight weeks.

The new addition will expand the facility’s capacity to demonstrate full line capabilities in support of customers and their processes. The remaining space will continue to house a wide range of small and mid-size food production equipment, bringing the venue ever closer to offering end-to-end product demonstrations for customers.

JBT Marel’s Sandusky facility has a long history of innovation and customer collaboration in food processing wherein 1981 a need for a dedicated area within the facility was created to demonstrate food processing equipment to prospective customers. Prior to this, customer product trials could only be conducted when a machine became available on the manufacturing floor—an environment not well suited for food testing. Thus, the first Food Processing Technology Center was born.

The concept quickly proved to be a major success and an effective sales tool, establishing the foundation for what would become today’s Customer Innovation Center.

As the facility expanded, JBT Marel was able to install a complete batter, bread, fry, and oven-cook line which allowed customers to test and refine products such as chicken fingers, cheese sticks, and nuggets in a controlled, real-world environment.

In 1996, JBT Marel completed a 30,000-square-foot building expansion to house a new, state-of-the-art Food Processing Technology Center. This increased the dedicated food processing area to 12,000 square feet, featuring:

• two test kitchens
• multiple conference areas
• a fully equipped multimedia presentation area for classroom-style training.

Rebranded as the Customer Innovation Center, the facility continues to serve as a vital sales and customer training tool. Today, it supports over 400 activities annually, including customer testing, process validation, training, and ongoing support for JBT Marel’s engineering and applications teams.

The Sandusky Customer Innovation Center is designed to mirror customers’ own production lines, enabling real-life testing and prototyping from concept to industrialization. The facility supports:

• co-creation of solutions to specific production challenges
• development of innovative products on an industrial scale
• showcase events targeted at specific industries, processes, and further processing applications
• customer meetings, training sessions, and hospitality in a dedicated, professional environment.

The Sandusky plant is staffed by highly experienced personnel with deep technical and application knowledge, ensuring customers receive expert guidance throughout their testing and development journey.

Source: JBT Marel