Novolex®, a leading manufacturer of food, beverage and specialty packaging, has opened its new Applied Innovation Center (AIC) in Roanoke, Texas. The AIC gives customers and Novolex teams a hands-on space to train, innovate, prototype, and demonstrate how the company's products perform in real-world environments, shortening the path from concept to shelf.
The 17,500-square-foot facility is built around five simulated market environments, including foodservice, grocery, retail, café and bakery, and QSR settings, plus a dedicated prototype room for onsite forming, sealing, and printing. Novolex teams and customers can work together to test packaging solutions, compare options, and confidently select the right products for their business.
"The Applied Innovation Center is where packaging concepts become customer solutions," said Stan Bikulege, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Novolex. "Our customers are making bigger packaging decisions faster than ever, balancing cost, performance and sustainability. With our full portfolio in front of them and our people beside them, the AIC helps them make those decisions with confidence and data to back them up. It reflects who Novolex is: a partner committed to helping our customers create value, grow their business and win in the marketplace."
With one of the most diverse substrate offerings in the packaging industry, spanning fiber, resins, recyclable, compostable, and specialty solutions across more than 250 brands and 39,000 SKUs, Novolex built the AIC to put that breadth of choice directly in customers' hands. Visitors can explore, compare, and stress-test packaging options across realistic foodservice, grocery, and retail settings, backed by expert-led guidance from Novolex specialists.
"Sustainable packaging only earns its place if it performs," said Adrianne Tipton, Chief Innovation & Sustainability Officer at Novolex. "The AIC lets our R&D teams put new materials and designs through the conditions they will actually face before a customer makes a packaging decision at scale. That is how innovation moves from the lab to a proven solution our customers can adopt with confidence."
