There are multiple reasons why we have invested in France. Right now, we do have a lot of expertise in biscuit technology in France and it was important to have those people stay with us. There is also the role of the R&D center we are building where we will be developing biscuit products for all of Europe. And then we will have a special role in developing health and wellness products like Petit Déjeuner, chocolate bakery type products and soft biscuits for the rest of the world.

 

The reason for selecting France for R&D is the friendliness of the government agencies and the community in welcoming us, and obviously the tax credits for an R&D investment. The Saclay area is attractive because the investment in France in a major R&D center allows us to work closely with the university and allows us to work closely with external companies and technologies that we may not have internally. It’s important as we build R&D centers for us to be in a large technical community.

 

The skills we are looking for and we have found in France for the food industry? Great product development skills, people that have university degrees in food science, agriculture, chemistry.

 

This center will initially start out with a little over a hundred people and then there’ll be future opportunities from there.