Kerry announced the opening of its West Coast customer engagement center in Commerce, CA. The opening event brought together customers and local dignitaries, including Marcella Smyth, consul general of Ireland to the Southwestern United States, and Killian McMahon, West Coast director of Enterprise Ireland.

Attendees got to see Kerry’s technologies firsthand through product showcases, demonstrations, and presentations, as well as the company’s industry partnerships, such as with Café Feminino, which supports coffee farmers around the world.

Kerry’s newly renovated customer engagement space will act as a co-creation center for West Coast food and beverage manufacturers. The facility will bring global technology to a local setting to help regional businesses refine food and beverage solutions. Kerry will use its application, research, development, and pilot manufacturing facilities on site to support local customers in real time to develop and launch food and beverage products.

The Commerce site will host Kerry Kalaido, an AI-powered concept tool powered with proprietary data that can help with concept ideation and development sessions.

A new portfolio of product capabilities called “Taste Alley” will also be launched at the site. The portfolio is targeted at up-and-coming food and beverage companies to help them push through early-phase obstacles to launching products, like high minimum order quantities and long lead times for materials.

“This new space in Commerce is designed to facilitate R&D collaboration, speed up innovation cycles, and allow customers to work directly with our technical experts or independently in the space,” said John Cahalane, president and CEO of Kerry North America. “We are constantly looking at ways to serve our customers better, so we look forward to offering our Taste Alley portfolio and Kerry Kalaido solution to ensure they can commercialize at speed in an evolving market.”

The company’s Beyond the Horizon sustainability strategy will involve providing each Kerry facility with a donation budget for local causes and a paid volunteer day for all employees. This year, the team donated to various nonprofit organizations in support of Los Angeles and the surrounding communities in response to the wildfires in the area.