Croda starts construction of North American HQ and Innovation Centre

British specialty chemicals company Croda International Plc announced that construction is underway for their North American Headquarters and Innovation Centre, scheduled for completion before the end of 2020. The sustainable facility, located near Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A., will bring together commercial and technical teams from across its business areas, enabling Croda to further optimise successful collaboration with its key customers based in North America. The facility has been carefully designed to strengthen employee collaboration, a key component in driving new product innovation, which supports the delivery of Croda’s commitment to being climate, land and people positive by 2030.

Strategically located mid-way between New York City and Philadelphia, the new location is designed to be a highly collaborative space, focused on sustainable innovation and meeting the needs of both the local and global marketplace. It will feature an almost 11,000 square foot, state-of-the-art laboratory space, dedicated to serving Croda’s major markets through the delivery of new technologies as well as customer technical support. A 2,960 square foot customer experience centre is a new enhancement, allowing Croda to provide customers with both on-site training and real time collaboration with Croda’s technical experts.

“It is our desire to provide each of our industries with new technologies that will improve consumer experience in a maximum capacity,” explains David Shannon, senior vice president of Croda Inc. “With our new capabilities and assets in the new facility, our goal is to use this space to provide our customers the necessary tools to meet their business objectives, while simultaneously progressing our purpose of delivering Smart Science to Improve Lives™.”

The location is designed with sustainability as a top focus. Croda has committed to being the most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients, by creating, making and delivering solutions to tackle some of the biggest challenges the world is facing. The facility will support Croda’s goal of becoming climate, land and people positive by 2030, using renewable energy to target zero carbon emissions and developing new natural ingredients to reduce pollution, make land use more efficient, and promote health and wellbeing across society.

The new regional headquarters and innovation centre will perpetuate a one-team Croda mindset, as in addition to its technical teams, the facility will be the hub for all its non-site specific commercial and support functions for North America, working together under one roof to support the creation and delivery of some of the industry’s most desired speciality ingredients. The modern workspace will enable the Croda team to maximise creativity and output by encouraging employees to knowledge share across teams and industries, harnessing the power of Croda’s culture of community, in a safe and healthy environment.

“Our employees are our difference, being the lifeblood and future of our organisation. We have chosen a new location where our employees will thrive and create an even stronger North American team,” Shannon explains. “It is our vision that this new environment, with innovation and sustainability at the core, will spark new ideas and push the boundaries of our thinking to deliver a positive difference to our customers, the environment and to society, delivering our purpose of providing ‘Smart Science to Improve Lives™’.”

Croda expects to occupy their new facility by the end of 2020.