Speed matters in foodservice. From concept to menu launch, operators need ingredient and flavor partners who can deliver fast, smart innovation—and increasingly, that speed depends on how quickly suppliers can synthesize research and respond to briefs. Givaudan's recent technology investment offers a case study in why supplier infrastructure matters to your business.
The Supply-Side Bottleneck
Givaudan's Taste & Wellbeing Marketing & Consumer & Sensory Insights (CSI) team supports some of the world's largest food and beverage brands across beverages, dairy, sweet goods, savory, snacks, and healthcare. Despite access to extensive consumer, category, and sensory research, the company faced a familiar operational problem: research was scattered across multiple platforms, external providers, internal systems, shared folders, and individual teams. Responding to a customer brief required employees to know not only where information lived but also who had access to it. Valuable insights existed somewhere in the organization, yet locating them consistently demanded significant time and effort.
The result was slower project delivery, duplicated research, and teams relying on inference when relevant evidence could not be found quickly enough. Rather than generating more research, Givaudan recognized it needed to leverage the knowledge it already possessed by creating a single, searchable destination for trusted insights.
The Infrastructure Solution
After evaluating several knowledge management platforms, Givaudan selected Stravito to serve as its centralized insights platform. The decision was based on intuitive user experience, rapid implementation, ability to integrate with existing research providers, strong customer support, and overall business value. Internally, the team named its Stravito platform "Genie," reflecting its ability to surface relevant research quickly and simplify access to existing knowledge across the organization. By consolidating internal and external research into a single point of entry, Givaudan reduced the time employees spent searching for information and increased the time available for analysis, collaboration, and innovation.
What This Means for Operators
The impact was measurable almost immediately. According to Givaudan, many projects now move three to ten times faster than before implementation, with research that previously required days—or even weeks—to locate becoming accessible in minutes through Stravito's AI-powered search capabilities. Easier access to existing insights has also reduced duplicated work, allowing the CSI team to support more customer briefs while directing research resources toward genuinely new opportunities rather than recreating work that already exists.
The platform has strengthened collaboration throughout the organization as well. Whether supporting proactive innovation initiatives or responding to customer requests, marketing, sensory, and technical teams now work from a shared foundation of consumer and market intelligence. Regional teams are able to better understand unfamiliar markets by accessing centralized research instead of relying solely on local expertise, leading to more informed internal discussions and greater confidence in customer conversations.
For operators, this translates directly: faster turnaround on ingredient and flavor innovation requests, reduced duplication of effort on your briefs, and more strategic guidance from supplier teams freed up to focus on creative solutions rather than administrative searching.
The Competitive Angle
Beyond measurable productivity gains, Givaudan views the platform as a way to create more time for higher-value work. By reducing the time employees spend searching for information and synthesizing research, teams can focus more attention on strategic thinking, creativity, and developing new ideas that ultimately benefit customers. Today, Stravito is available to Givaudan's regional and local Marketing and Consumer & Sensory Insights teams across Europe, with plans to extend access to additional commercial and technical stakeholders.
As the company continues evaluating broader global expansion, leadership views faster access to trusted insights as an increasingly important competitive advantage in an industry where consumer preferences, product development cycles, and innovation timelines continue to accelerate. For Givaudan, the value of Stravito extends beyond organizing research. It has transformed existing knowledge into a more accessible business asset, enabling teams to make faster, better-informed decisions while creating more capacity for innovation. In today's food and beverage landscape, where speed and confidence are becoming just as important as creativity, that ability may prove to be one of the company's most valuable competitive advantages.
