Acquisition Combines US Food Innovation Firms

In California, veteran food and beverage product development firm Mattson has announced the acquisition of Chicago-based Hyde Park Group Food Innovation (HPG) - giving it its first location outside the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Since 1977, Mattson has helped food and beverage clients develop new products, aiming to optimise them for taste, nutrition, sustainability, profitability and customer experience. Its front-end innovation practice includes strategists, analysts, food scientists, scale-up specialists, culinary experts and professional chefs. The company offers proprietary ideation methods ProtoThink AI and Food Studio AI, and these will be combined with HPG's trends-based approach, integrating James Beard and Michelin-starred chefs and restaurateurs into the ideation and development process.

Following the deal, HPG's team will continue to run the Chicago operation, and the combined company will offer 'industry-leading holistic innovation services to help clients create the future of food, from front-end insights, strategy and creative development, through full-service R&D, scale-up and commercialization'.

Mattson Chairman and Chief Creative Officer Steve Gundrum (pictured) comments: 'The Chicagoland area has always been a nexus of the US food and beverage industry and having a presence there will enable us to serve even more of the CPGs, restaurant brands and B2B foodservice and ingredient powerhouses in the Midwest and Eastern US'. Mary Haderlein, founder and Principal of HPG, adds: 'We're honored to team up with such a respected, iconic, and forward-thinking firm that will bring the best of Silicon Valley innovation and entrepreneurial thinking to Chicago's flourishing food community'.

Web sites are at www.mattsonco.com and www.hydeparkgroup.com .