14. Jun, 2019
By Anne Sofie Kirkegaard
HILLERØD, 14 June 2019. Today, FOSS celebrates the inauguration of 10,000 square metres built in connection to FOSS Innovation Centre, which now spreads across 24,000 square metres. This creates room for more developers, who will be working on innovation and the development of new analytical solutions for the food industry.
FOSS is a growing tech company, of which FOSS Innovation Centre in Hillerød, Denmark, is visual proof. In 2013, the first building on the premises was completed, encompassing close to 14,000 square metres. Not long thereafter, the company was already close to growing out of the new site. So in 2017, the construction of a second building began, which is the extension inaugurated today.
“FOSS’ business has grown really well since moving to the new site in Hillerød, and that is why we are now inaugurating a new extension. With the needed extra square metres, we now have almost twice as much room for innovation. We have been holding back a little on hiring in Denmark, but now we’re once again set for further growth,” says CEO of FOSS, Kim Vejlby Hansen.
The new extension makes it possible nearly to double the number of desks and lab space at FOSS Innovation Centre in Hillerød. From previously housing 400 employees, it can now potentially house 800. Currently, 550 people are working in the building.
More room for innovation
Particularly development is on a growth track, and there are clear ambitions for the future.
“In the last two years, the development department has grown by 25%. That’s a positive trajectory we intend to continue, and now we have the absolute best physical frames for that to happen,” says SVP of development Tommy Bysted, who joined FOSS four months ago.
FOSS develops analytics for the food and agricultural industry, which is a growing market. The population growth and especially a growing middle class, which is expected to double in size by 2050, means a greater global demand for healthy and safe foods. FOSS develops analytics, which make it possible to measure the quality and composition of foods like grain and milk, for smaller family productions as well as for the global corporations.
“Innovation is the driving force at FOSS. We are a curious bunch, always on the lookout for the best solutions to some of the biggest challenges our global food production faces. Our new creative workshop lab and user experience lab will give us the best conditions for developing technologies and excellent customer experiences.” Tommy Bysted continues: “We are also on the lookout for more of the right people to help find the best and sustainable solutions.”
Right now, FOSS is looking for 25 people to join their Research & Development department, and it is expected that more will follow in the near future.
A new road name to honour the founder of FOSS
In connection to today’s inauguration, the road leading to FOSS Innovation Centre is changing name from Foss Allé to Nils Foss Allé. The company founder, Nils Foss, passed away in 2018, and thus the road name changes to honour the entrepreneurial engineer, who founded FOSS back in 1956.
Facts about the build
• 10,420 m2 hereof 1,800m2 parterre – original building was 13,650m2 hereof 3.800m2 basement
• 420 new office desks – spread over 3 floors
• 160m2 chemistry lab on the ground floor
• 50m2 training lab on the ground floor
• Further extensive lab expansions in the original building
• Across the original building and the extension, lab facilities are doubled in size
• Drone film from the construction of the new building
About FOSS
FOSS contributes to the sustainable use of our planet’s agricultural resources and thus to the nutrition and health of the people of the world. We make it our business to build analytical solutions, which add value by improving food quality and optimising production, from raw material to finished product.
Our analyses turn measurement into information. Information, which businesses use to run intelligent data-driven productions with less waste and bigger yields. We help food and agricultural producers limit the number of human errors, and scale their business faster, smarter and better. We call it analytics beyond measure.
Nils Foss founded the family-owned company in Hillerød in 1956. We are a global company and our products and services are sold all around the world. FOSS employs 1,500 highly qualified people worldwide.
Contact
Communications consultant Anne Sofie Kirkegaard
+45 60 67 79 98 / aski@foss.dk