Our story

The privately owned company TOP BV is founded in 2005 by Bert Tournois, Frank Giezen, Herman Feil and Wouter de Heij as practical development and innovation spin-off from Wageningen UR. TOP BV is part of the successful TDI incubator (founded in 1999) that has initiated more than 35 start-ups and successful joint ventures (e.g. Ojah, Phytonext, Pascal Processing, Thatchtec and Phycom).

TOP B.V. works for the food industry and its suppliers like equipment manufacturers worldwide. Boosting your company’s profits, practical innovation and improving the quality of your (new) products are our priorities. To achieve this ultimate goal we apply the latest scientific and technical know-how. Our team is specialized in full NPD, engineering and the use of novel mild preservation technologies like HPP (pascalisation), PEF (PurePulse), AMAP, RF (Radio Frequent) and PATS. Other topics are bio cascading, novel extraction methods, all-natural reformulations and structuring of (plant) proteins. We have filed and thus own multiple patents and continue to re-invest in R&D projects.

We know that R&D is usually not a primary goal for many enterprises. Efficient R&D should improve your innovation and thus should directly catalyze the growth of your primary business. TOP specializes in practical win-win collaborations with small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) including start-ups. Of course, nowadays most multinationals know where to find us too. Our organization is located in Wageningen (The Netherlands), also known as the Food Valley region. TOP is the preferred innovation partner of accelerating program BOX and business catalyst Holland Food Ventures, and collaborates with investment funds and family offices.

At TOP we focus on achieving practical solutions and implementation. This means we concentrate on the design of food products (NPD), production machines (Engineering) and production processes (full factories) that are better suited for the demands of emerging markets. We prefer to keep our R&D projects small and specific. TOP does have own laboratories, trial production locations and food grade pilot lines. Facilities that are available for all our partners and clients.

Our vision for the future is clear:  “We –in the Netherlands, UK, rest of Europa and USA- live in the penthouse of Maslow’s pyramid”. Hence, consumer needs are fully driven by the demand of exciting new experience and sustainability. The global shift towards a healthier lifestyle and consumption of healthier food and beverages will result in a range of new products that cater to this expanding market: all natural, non-GMO and without additives or preservatives. Food products and ingredients that can only be manufactured using novel technologies.

Our main challenge in Wageningen is to identify the new R&D areas that will fulfill our future needs, while we are entering into the sixth Kondratieff wave. A second but essential aspect is the assessment of the people driving those new businesses as we are convinced that human capital is our most important investment consideration.

 

We hope you will join our innovation journey, making the world a better place.