Egg Replacement Ingredient Expansion: Renmatix Enters Into an Agreement with The Ingredient House

A distribution contract was signed by Renmatix with The Ingredient House, a supplier of specialty food ingredients to[RP1]  to food and beverage manufacturers all over the US. Both companies foresee the potential to substitute eggs with simple cellulose in baked products. Simple cellulose is a plant-based ingredient that offers producers around 50 percent in cost-in-use savings.

Renmatix feels that there are a lot of growth opportunities in following the clean label movement by using simple cellulose, which shows multifunctional property advantages in moisture retention, fat replacement, texturizing, and emulsification. Some of these are sought-after traits to meet today’s ever-changing consumer tastes.

Simple cellulose is extracted from agricultural feedstocks and plant materials. It enables food manufacturers to replace fats and eggs, as it increases the efficiency of texturizing ingredients and moisture retention needed for freshness extension. All this is done by undermining the price of traditional components. 

Simple cellulose has also shown promise in vegan-baked and gluten-free goods. Additionally, its exceptional characteristics are currently being recognized in various baked goods such as donuts, breads, cookies, and muffins. As per Renmatix, the product will also be used in meat & dairy, soups,sauces, and several other food ingredient applications.

Renmatix’s CEO, Mike Hamilton explained that egg substitute is essential in the present baking industry. He stated that eggs are just expensive and natural calamities such as diseases, hurricanes and other factors can hamper the supply chain, thereby increasing costs and creating uncertainty for businesses that are highly dependent on a regular supply of ingredients.

Mike Hamilton also added that simple cellulose is extracted from plant material, namely agricultural feedstocks that only uses water, making it less expensive than eggs.

Renmatix estimated that if bakeries opt for simple cellulose, they will be saving around 25-50% on the cost of eggs annually. Second crucial fact is that a lot of consumers want plant-based ingredients in their food, which are not just environmentally sustainable but also cruelty-free.

Besides plant-based ingredients, consumers also want gluten-free and allergen-free food products, which is possible with the help of simple cellulose. It was in July that simple cellulose was introduced at the IFT Food Expo. Since its debut, it has been used in several bakery trial tests run all over the US.

Mike Hamilton said that they introduced simple cellulose last summer and they have been continuously testing it regionally in many commercial bakeries around Philadelphia. They are producing it in big amounts in their Kennesaw (Georgia) factory, and have witnessed big success in the bakeries and tests with partners such as Mattson Foods. He further said that they are all ready to provide simple cellulose to bigger customers in the US.

 [RP1]As we have written supplier, we don’t need to write “who sells to”

Volkswagen Launches Mobile Charging Station in its Hometown with Plans to Expand to Other Cities in Future

Wolfsburg based Car manufacturer brand Volkswagen has unveiled quick electronic charging stations for its electric cars to be set up initially in the company’s hometown with plans to expand to other cities as well. The charging stations are mobile with capacity of charging up to 100 Kw electricity in a very short time. Volkswagen’s series of electric cars can be charged by these mobile stations as well as of other brands.

The greatest challenge in adoption to electric vehicles is the lack of efficient network of charging points. Customer’s difficulty in finding a reasonable number of charging points on the road discourages them from adopting to clean energy vehicles. Volkswagen wants to fix this by providing basic infrastructure for adoption to e-mobility.

The Volkswagen charging stations will be discoverable with the help of smartphone app and will be positioned strategically at different points across the city to ensure ease of access. The stations will be able to charge e-bikes as well as e-cars with the capacity to charge four vehicles at a time with two ac and two dc adapters. The storage capacity of the battery is 360 Kwh more than sufficient for 15 e-vehicles. Vehicles can also be connected to direct power supply with threshold charging limit of 30 Kw via alternating current.

Volkswagen believes an electric vehicle can be called eco-friendly or a clean vehicle only if it is using sustainably generated electricity, it claims that it’s charging points can be specifically used for storing electricity generated by wind and solar energy making the station completely CO2-neutral.

The mobile column is powered with Volkswagen’s Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB), this will allow quick scalability along with second battery life. The charging station’s design allows it to be setup at any shopping center, the average time for charging each vehicle will be nearly 17 minutes.

Its plans to invest heavily with US$ 2 billion of investment in plans for the e-mobility infrastructure sector will fast track transition to e-vehicles. E-vehicles hit record sales of 1 million sales in 2018. Scandinavian countries like Norway lead the race, with one third of its total vehicles sold in 2018 being electric vehicles. The country has also formulated a policy to go fossil fuel free by the year 2025. With global warming at the doorsteps and Paris Climate agreement’s ambitious targets to cut carbon emission, many countries are offering tax exemption for e-vehicle.

For the swift and smooth shift to e-mobility, an integrated network of charging points along with ability to charge vehicles in minutes is integral. Volkswagen wants to address these issues with this project. 

Flipkart and Amazon to Form United Front against New Amendments in E-Commerce Draft Policy

Leading online firms such as Amazon and Flipkart are planning to team up and form united front against government’s decision, restricting online sellers from offering heavy discounts and other changes in selling policy. Both the companies are planning to have a dialogue with the government and form a united front with the help of industry bodies including Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), along with the leading investment firms including Tiger Global, SoftBank, Naspers, and Sequoia.

According to some industry experts, the government’s decision can make it difficult for Flipkart, Amazon and other e-commerce firms to do business in India. If the government put a stop to the flash sales and bar online marketplaces to sell via vendor firms that e-commerce companies hold a stake in, this will lead e-commerce companies to revamp their business model and change the way they conduct business in India.

The change in private label policy and cut-down in the amount of business that e-commerce companies do in the segment are likely to impact the number of jobs provided by companies and this may also lead to the situation where companies will rethink on their expansion plans in India.

The government, a few weeks back announced alteration in the policy of online selling goods and services in India. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has prohibited e-commerce companies from selling the products of the firms in which they hold the stake. Additionally, the Ministry has also confined e-commerce companies from signing an agreement for exclusive sales of products.

The government has also introduced some restrictions on the cashback schemes and deep discounting offered by e-commerce companies. These changes in the e-commerce draft policy are likely to be effective from 1st February 2019.

Trader bodies in the country such as Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) have been constantly pressuring the government to introduce e-commerce policy that keeps the interests of traders in India. Moreover, any changes in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy supporting global players are likely to be opposed by trader bodies in the country. 

The US and China to hold Ministerial Level Talk to End the Trade War

The United States and China are set to conduct a trade talk at the vice-ministerial level in Beijing, on both Monday and Tuesday, as both of the countries are under constant pressure to put a full stop to the trade war, that is coming with several repercussions for the top two economies in the world and is disturbing the global financial markets.

For around half of the last year, the trade war had some seriously adverse impact on the flow million-dollar worth of goods and has turned out to be a matter of serious concern for the entire global economy. Official data in this week conveyed that the rate of manufacturing activities across both the nations have been dwindling in terms of intensity and big companies, such as Cargill Inc and Apple Inc, confirmed that the trade battle have had some harsh impacts on earnings of both the countries 

As per sources, a team led by Jeffrey Gerrish, Deputy US Trade Representative, will be travelling to China for participating in “positive as well as constructive discussions” along with the counterparts in China.

As per a statement made by USTR on Friday, the delegation would also be including Under Secretaries from various US Departments of Commerce, Agriculture, Energy and Treasury, along with the senior delegates from the aforementioned agencies and the White House.

At a summit held in Argentina last year, Donald Trump, the US president, along with the Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, agreed on mutual terms to hold off on the additional tariffs for around 90 days while they made attempts to negotiate a deal.

Now, the countries witness a March deadline for the talks to bring an end to the trade war. Trump has confirmed in terms of optimistic talks that are going on, but it still remains unclear if Beijing would yield to the demand of U.S. for more open markets, compelled technology transfer, and industrial subsidies. Serving some of these demands would heighten the necessity of some solid structural reforms.

“We are well aware of what type of changes we require. Now, the question arises is that if we would be able to negotiate these changes and can achieve it via enforcement and timetables,”- Larry Kudlow, Economic Advisor, White House.

USTR mentioned in a statement that the delegation will be including Gregg Doud, the Chief Agricultural Negotiator of USDA, This talk has created multiple expectations in terms of positive results and will also bring some significant changes to the economical vigor of both the countries.

PolyOne Corp Completed its Acquisition of Fiber-Line for $120 million

PolyOne Corp. (www.polyone.com) announced its strategic acquisition of Fiber-Line (www.fiber-line.com), a leading manufacturer of customized composite materials and engineered fibers for around $120 million.

Founded in the year 1987, Fiber-Line has used its customer-centric values as well as specialty innovation to build a robust portfolio of offerings catering to oil & gas, industrial, fiber optic cable, and consumer industries.  With five fully-fledged manufacturing establishments in North America, Europe and Asia, Fiber-Line offers material science and polymer sythesis know-how to inculcate standard performance attributes for fiber. Some of the aforementioned characteristics include abrasion, strength, chemical resistance, and specialty colorants.

“Fiber-Line is a unique as well as necessary addition to the existing portfolio i.e. fiber and composite solutions, which is foreseen to offer tremendous scope for growth,” said Robert M. Patterson, CEO, PolyOne Corporation. “This acquisition is one of the key strategic moves that represents a notable investment vis-à-vis our segment of specialty engineered materials segment. “We anticipate this move to add approximately $100 million in revenue in 2019 and grow via a gradual addition to the company’s revenue earnings”, added Mr. Patterson.

With an aim of solidifying their market sustenance, companies have been persistently developing interest for mergers and acquisitions, irrespective of size. This acquisition will not only help in amelioration of the current operations of PolyOne Corp., but will also facilitate the abilities of learning from Fiber-Line. Value creation remains one of the key benefits in case of mergers and acquisitions, wherein new technology standards are created enabling high-scale product diversification.

Fiber-Line’s leading technologies befits the existing specialty composite offerings and wire & cable applications of PolyOne. By utilizing the effective invest-to-grow integration strategy of Fiber-line, PolyOne looks forward to heightened innovation. Moreover, PolyOne is also likely to leverage strategic formulation know-how and high-scale presence of Fiber-line to accelerate its own growth trajectory.

“This acquisition, which resulted in Fiber-Line joining hands with PolyOne, is foreseen to represent exciting opportunities for creating best-quality products to serve our evolving customer needs”, added Dale Outhous, CEO, Fiber-Line. “Through the future investments by PolyOne in the technical abilities, geographical reach, and operational framework of Fiber-Line, our service for our customers would be much better than before.”

Mr. Patterson also added, “We are extremely thrilled to welcome the entire team of Fiber-Line on board.  Through rising number of collaborative efforts with customers, we’ll get hold of both short-term as well as long-term growth prospects, which will benefit us in terms of business expansion.”

Perimeter Solutions Expands its Footprint in Global Fire Foam Market

Perimeter Solutions, one of the prominent producers offering a wide-range of fire retardants, water enhancing gels, and foams for management of fires of varying intensities across wild land, municipal, and industrial ecosystems, made an announcement yesterday. The announcement was about the completion of its acquisition of Solberg, the Amerex Corporation division of firefighting foam products. Solberg offers foam systems hardware as well as advanced technologies vis-à-vis firefighting foam concentrate under the brand names of ARCTIC®, SOLBERG®, FIRE-BRAKE®, and RE-HEALING™.

Solberg foam products have long famed for their competency to be in the same page with the rising technological demand in terms of meeting stringent criteria of fire performance and standards vis-à-vis environmental safety. Acquisitions across various industries, including chemical, have been instrumental in terms of giving the much-needed fillip to the business performances of both the parties involved in the acquisition.

“Acquisition of Solberg was a crucial step in the strategic framework of fire safety business of Perimeter Solutions. This acquisition notably lays the foundation for affluent expansion of the company’s commitment to its clients, diversified capabilities, and technical know-how in foam products,”- Edward Goldberg, President and CEO, Perimeter Solutions. “We are super excited to have the extremely talented and experienced team of Solberg on-board and looking forward to some amazing results to be achieved together in terms of expanding services to our highly-valued customers.”, added Goldberg.

Perimeter Solutions will be integrating the operational framework of Solberg to its current manufacturing as well as sales ecosystem for ameliorating its position in terms of technology and supply in the fire suppressant foam technologies’ space.

“We are super excited to work together with the Perimeter Solutions family. As we were on the lookout for the right partner to proceed in our journey, it was extremely pivotal to find a firm whose core values were on the same page with ours”- Bill Smith, President, Solberg. “By working together, we will be able to provide our customers with highly innovative range of products with effective results and unparalleled ease of usage”, added Smith.

Perimeter Solutions holds a major spot in the manufacturing framework in Class A foam products meant for municipal as well as wild land firefighting in North America and has gained prominence on the back of its innovative business framework with superior capabilities in terms of technology. This acquisition is believed to upgrade the manufacturing abilities of Perimeter Solutions via an additional state-of-the-art facility in North America and extended footprint in Europe as well as Asia Pacific.

Alphabet’s Drone Project, Wing gears up for Testing its New Quiet Drones as Complaints Pour in about ‘Ballistic’ Noises from its Current Drones

Wing, Google parent Alphabet’s subsidiary working on drone-based delivery, is now working on a quiet and noiseless drones. The company announced its plans after the Australian town Bonython’s residents where the drone is being tested reported complaints about the noise pollution by the drones.

Wing is testing its drone delivery system in the Australian township of Bonython. The company has not conducted any operations in USA owing to stricter regulation about drones in the country. An attempt by Wing to deliver Starbucks in America was wrapped up immediately. Wing has already successfully delivered thousands of items in Australia including home accessories, burritos, pizza, medicines. The company has also announced plans to start a drone delivery system in Finland on trial basis. The drones will be able to lift weights up to 1.5 Kg and less over a 10 Km distance.

But Australian experience of drones has been less than pleasing as the residents of the town reported the drone sounds as if chainsaw went ballistic. Residents are avoiding to go into their yards to avoid the irritable sound. Dog owners are avoiding the areas with drones as the drone sound make the dogs nervous. It has also triggered PTSD symptoms in military veterans. These complaints have raised questions on the commercial viability of adopting drone. This could create hurdles in large scale adoption of commercial drones.

Wing tried to address the resident’s complaints by changing the route of drones from frequent routes so that the drones don’t fly on the same homes and also by reducing the speed of drones. Learning from these experiences, the company has announced plans to design and build quitter drones. The company has reportedly developed a new propeller which creates low pitched sounds rather than ‘ballistic’ ones. The new drone has not yet been tested.

Wing claims that its battery powered drones are environment friendly compared to ground-based delivery. The promise of quick delivery along with environmental advantage of 22 times lesser carbon footprint than conventional alternatives has intrigued businesses and customers alike.

Drone technology is disrupting industries ranging from agriculture, retail to filmmaking. As large conglomerates like Amazon, Alphabet invest heavily on the commercial adoption of drone technology, concerns ranging from economic impact, its use in espionage operations and national security have made their way in the mainstream discussions. A recent PwC report suggests that commercial drone applications will replace $127 billion of human labor and jobs across a wide range of industries.

Universal Electronics to Launch its Versatile and Security-enabled Smart Home Device based on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Platform

Universal Electronics, a global leader in sensing and control technologies for smart homes, has in a collaborative project with Microsoft announced to launch a new digital assistant built on Microsoft’s Azure cloud services platform using IoT and AI Services.

Artificial Intelligence has opened new doors to further improvise smart living experience. A great application of these services in security and safety related services has inspired technology companies to create virtual digital assistants on smartphones and home TVs to bring joy with meaningful interaction with technological gadgets. Smart Home digital assistants will play a huge role in developing ease of access to customers enriching comfort and safety to new highs.

Microsoft and UE’s Smart home assistant Nevo® Butler, which is a white label product developed and integrated on Azure cloud platform of Microsoft. The digital assistant has leveraged Azure’s cognitive services nova.ai, bot services, AI and IoT services uniting home automation and entertainment services. The smart home service will provide a wide range of services addressing energy management, entertainment control, home security and safety in hospitality as well as residential domain.

The design of the smart home device includes UE878 multiprotocol chipset which will ensure a wider of deliverable services across Zigbee, IP, Zigbee rf4ce, Infrared and Bluetooth smart. The device is also capable of supporting other voice assistants on the platform when customers are diversifying their choices across different devices.

A range of entertainment and add on services are planned to be added, in future, consumer electronics and service providers will be able to make end-to-end voice enabled services on its platform. The platform is aligned and integrated with QuickSet Cloud based on Azure Cloud service platform and the company plans to democratize access to essential technology by providing conversational and voice enabled to provide a naturally controlled and frictionless environment.

By partnering with Azure and QuickSet the platform will enable customers to create custom solutions to the virtual assistant. The product is heading for a demonstration at Sans Expo in CES 2019.  The versatility of services has made the product lucrative by its innovative services on the smart home and also voice enabled services on existing smartphone devices. The product offers interoperability when users are increasingly leaning towards buying beyond a single brand.

Premier Inn, UK’s Hospitality Giant Installs 100kWh Battery at its Gyle Site, Expansion to Other Hotels Soon

Premier Inn has in partnership with E.ON has installed UK’s first hotel based battery storage unit. The lithium ion based battery has a capacity of 100 KWh and will be used to store excess energy produced from the hotel’s rooftop solar panel array. The battery will be used for at least 2 hours per day to meet the hotel’s energy demand at peak hours. As the Whitbred-owned hotel Gyle located in Edinburg park area has 200 rooms, its energy demand requires huge energy backup. The lithium battery will ensure energy backup as well

The company chose Edinburg park hotels. Scotland is one of the largest producer of renewable energy specifically wind energy owing to its windy territory even though onshore and offshore winds have tendency of volatility. The site already equipped with smart lighting, LED fitting and many more sustainable and energy efficient features is now also integrated to E.ON system. E.ON system will enable the smart features to be remotely controlled from its facility.

The hotel conglomerate owns 680 hotels in the UK plans to install the battery in all its hotels soon, as annual savings of £20,000 is expected from the Premier Inn battery installation. If the carbon cost and energy efficiency is up to the mark, the hotel chain will unroll the project in near future. The ultimate aim is to reduce carbon footprint, save money, achieve energy efficiency along with adoption of a low carbon smart grid in the country.

Premier Inn has already installed solar panels to 169 hotels in its hospitality business chain, the solar capacity of Premier Inn has surpassed 3MW. The company wants to cut its carbon reliance to half the current position by the end of 2025. The rest of the demand is met by renewable energy as well by SSE, this has made the hotel chain completely powered by clean energy. As Whitbred has already made rapid progress towards an eco-friendly completely clean operational model, it is also transitioning towards water efficiency. In 2017 regulator ofwat, The Water Regulation Authority, licensed the chain to deliver its own wastewater and water services. Self-supply of water through its own systems will ensure cost reductions and greater consumption control.

Premier Inn CEO said the project will have thorough impact on the country by serving as a role model for sustainable and zero carbon footprint businesses. As solar technology cost has dropped in the recent years, businesses are looking to green and save money at the same time.

Digital Hub Plans to Build Windmill Farm on its Campus, to be Completed by the End of 2019, As Demand for Office Space Soars

Digital Hub, Ireland’s cluster of technology, digital media and internet companies, based in Dublin is planning a windmill farm on its campus to support energy needs of growing number of companies in the hub.  A year earlier eight new companies bought new office space and nine companies expanded their space in the hub.

The windmill site covering 2.6 acres roughly will include the famous St Patrick’s tower, and two office spaces of the digital hub, Digital Depot and the Grainstore. The site will be located in north of Thomas street in Dublin sector 8. The windmill plan will be executed in phased manner and initial phase will include feasibility and cost-benefit analysis. The plan is to be completed before 2019 end.

Digital hub currently hosts 70 businesses with 750 employees. With 70,000 Sq. feet office space and 85% occupancy rate spread across nine buildings, the hub is still experiencing growing demand from existing companies. The hub currently hosts companies from diverse sectors from creative digital to health-tech sector. Notable companies include CB Media, Gingerbread Animation, Neuromod and PatientMpower. Health-tech companies occupy ten percent of the entire space, this cluster of companies from the same sector keeps everyone informed and up-to-date with new industry developments.

Full Health Medical, a health-tech company which moved to The Digital Hub in 2018, believes the specialized ecosystem of health-tech companies along with the proximity to St James Hospital has added value to their business. Black Shamrock, a game company specializing in the development of role-playing games for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC recently moved to the hub along with PunchOut2Go, an American e-procurement company and Eclipse Pictures which is the country’s largest film distribution company.  

Digital Hub’s CEO Fiach Mac Conghail feels very excited of the future of tech companies coming to the hub, the diverse ecosystem of tech companies will have long term positive and tangible impact on the socio-economic scenario of the Liberties area of Dublin which has great historical significance.

Other noteworthy initiatives taken by the hub include artist-in-residence program where it plans to provide a platform for interaction between innovation, art and technology. Residents of the Liberties community will hugely benefit from such initiatives says the hub’s CEO Mr. Conghail. The Hub has also started focusing on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects with its Future Cadets Program.

In December 2018, The Digital Hub announced the appointment of architecture firm Scott Tallon Walker Architects and KSN Project Management to design the development of The Digital Hub.