Barry Callebaut, leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa solutions, has moved into Colworth Science Park – home to The Magnum Ice Cream Company (TMICC)

Its new home is at the park’s tech incubator Gastronomica – which provides a base for ambitious food-tech businesses tackling issues like global food shortages and driving sustainable solutions

Barry Callebaut and The Magnum Ice Cream Company, based at the Sharnbrook site, 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.

placeholder image — The Barry Callebaut team

"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, said: “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.”